This is the party of “we are all going to die”. We need a party of “we all look out for each other”. Call it socialism, call it humanism. Call it morality. Call it justice.
FDR tried, but racism, selfishness, and greed were too strong.
What is not stated anywhere is the probable goal behind Donalds Death Bill - other than giving the wealthy large returns on their investment in Donald.
One of the Bill’s goals is to let people die if they can’t afford to survive without government assistance. (Assistance from the tax dollars they pay the government will now be given to the wealthy who don’t need it.)
Trump & the wealthy want a society of wealthy and of workers who keep them wealthy. Those who can’t work, will not be allowed to survive with help federal tax dollars. If you’re unable to work or are not wanted by employers, and your family or community can’t afford to help you survive, then you are not welcome to survive in Trump’s America.
That means if your healthcare insurance maxes out, you’ll get booted out of hospitals, rehabilitation programs, long term care facilities, etc. That means your family (usually women) will have to quit their jobs to care for you.
That means if you’re a veteran who was injured physically &/or psychologically, your healthcare options are reduced.
People with healthcare through their employers will find it difficult to get the care they need, especially in the increasing number of healthcare provider, nursing home, & hospital deserts.
Even people who can afford nursing homes & hospitals without insurance will suffer, because many of those facilities will be forced to shut down due to lack of money from Medicaid/Medicare aiding those who can’t afford them. Fewer people who can afford nursing homes or hospitals will be using them, so those facilities won’t have the funds to stay open.
If Walmart workers can’t afford food because Walmart doesn’t pay enough, they will go hungry without SNAP.
The military are going to be very unhappy with the poor health of people forced to join the military (who no longer their support veterans). This is because in Trump’s America, millions of children will grow up under-nourished and be physically (and intellectually) weaker. The military and government know this. Staple foods like bread and milk were originally fortified with extra vitamins & minerals, because the military didn’t want weak recruits or to reject potential recruits who were damaged from poverty-prevalent illnesses like Rickets.
Just FYI, another big beneficiary of this bill, other than the wealthy, will be religions who may or may not help their members. People may feel forced / feel obligation to join religions in order to gain help. For decades, our Federal social safety net was competition for religions. People didn’t their aid as much because the Federal Government replaced some of the community services that houses of worship offered but with strings attached (real or perceived).
F—k the wealthy. F—k Trump and his soulless advisors.
Edit: Edited parts about religion. Note: i generalized because I can’t specify specific religions and specific houses of worship who directly have strings attached to their or who imply strings are attached. Don’t forget that members of a religion are often a part of the perceived strings. If religious leaders and religion members vote for not wanting their government to help others who aren’t like themselves, then there are likely many who resent helping people not of their faith.
Doug G - a good riposte. Both comments are valid (in my opinion, of course). My original comment wasn't aimed so much at your post specifically, but rather at the many examples of no doubt heartfelt responses to various items in various forums, including this one -- responses consisting of nothing but a series of emojis. To me that, among other things, is a sign to me that we're losing the ability to express ourselves. I think it's a real problem. Take a look at this Nature Briefing on AI to see the kinds of things that worry me:
Shane G: take a look at my reply to Doug G starting with "a good riposte". It's not crankiness (well, maybe a little), rather concern that we're losing our ability to communicate, think, reason, and to use effectively our beautiful gift of language . Not only "losing", but "giving up".
bbb (not OBBB!) - please see my posts above replying to Doug G and Shane G. I understand that people use emojis to express feelings and opinions. I see numerous videos about heart wrenching situations; most of the attached comments consist of emojis, sometimes 5 teary-faces, sometimes 10, sometimes more. What do they mean? Are 10 emojis twice as expressive as 5? Instead of sentences crafted by people, we get emojis. The point of my original post is that people are losing their ability to express themselves in a serious way, indeed, they are giving it up. We're also giving up our ability to think and write, to artificial intelligence. This is a subject for a long conversation.
I am conflicted about this. While I agree that those who get wealthy in our society should contribute more to society, and i agree that there is a role for government management of a safety net and further wish we had a more robust social safety net as exists in other countries, I am not hearing any calls for personal responsibility. I can't shake the memory of the sacrifices my parents made so that we had a secure place to live, food to eat, and a decent education plus their attention to societal and governmental programs that helped us along. I agree with the argument that workers are exploited too much, but I want to see more rhetorical attention to personal responsibility and to maintenance of our social fabric.
Why does it have to be sacrifice? Why not just working and thriving? Personal responsibility is NOT the same thing as sacrifice. All this talk of sacrifice is an outdated, yet religious notion that things have less or no value if something or someone hasn't sacrificed something else. It think veneration of sacrifice is actually the evil. Too often, people are told that societal burdens are simply their personal responsibility. Take motherhood. It offers no support systems and puts all the responsibility on the parent(s) (plural only if the dad doesn't abdicate his "personal responsibility". Yet we blame the single mother for picking the deadbeat dad. There are many cases where we blame an individual (most often women) for the actions of someone else. We also blame the poor for being poor, yet the world is literally more expensive for poor people.
And yet we keep mistaking greed for capitalism. *I just cut off the complement at the beginning of my comment, because after getting so many likes for such a simple statement it occurred to me that perhaps people were thinking that I was taking sides in what is obviously a rhetorical argument. That was not my intention. There must be some misunderstanding that I missed. There are good people on both sides. But in all seriousness, I will make the obvious observation that starving babies should never have to bear any personal responsibility.
It is greed when one takes more than their fair share, resulting in others being deprived. The natural vicissitudes of life don't treat people equally, but we have a choice, especially in the formation of non-tyrannical government to protect universal rights. If we, the people, are the ultimate, legitimate authority, then we bear a share of both choice and responsibility for societal outcomes and protecting of universal rights. Self governance is inherently DIY, no? Yet collaboratively. We each play a part.
Excuse me, Barbara. My parents’ sacrifices aren’t demanded of anyone. However, they took them on to raise us well and healthy, to contribute to our communities, help family members when possible, and save enough so their kids didn’t have a financial burden , only logistical and emotional ones, to care for them in their last years.
I ’m painfully aware of people who make mistakes like picking the wrong partner, of others whose only sins are being born on the wrong block or having the wrong skin color. Society has a responsibility to help people help themselves, and take care those that can’t. I would go further and declare that society has a responsibility to care for what it claims it most values, including families and single parents and expectant mothers.
As well, society seems to be demanding new electronics, new cars, and trendy clothes. Isn’t it the responsibility of every individual to spend within one’s means? Shouldn’t it be an individual’s responsibility to pass through spaces without destruction? Personal responsibility is a key part of the fabric of our society, and it’s getting short shrift.
Je Je - Are you figuring into this mindset the fact that racism exists? There are people who may want and carry all the responsibility they can but they are prevented from doing so because they are not the right color. Do you remember when Obama mentioned that as he was walking down a street, he could hear car locks? It is wonderful that your parents were great people but their environment facilitated their life choices. l
I repeat this concept. When all of us work together, including "corporate persons" and under fair rules, sacrifice is minimized and true personal responsibility comes to the fore...a positive personal responsibility to act well, not just a negative consequence dressed up as "taking personal responsibility " or "sacrifice." It’s not dissimilar to Timothy Snyder's new book, "On Freedom" in which he writes about positive and negative freedoms. Positive freedoms build prosperous communities. Negative freedoms build extractive oligarchies.
Yes, I grew up in the same kind of household as you. Unfortunately there will always be adults who do not rise to the level that our parents did. What about the children of those unresponsible adults? Those children need a social safety net.
"...unresponsible adults? Those children need a social safety net." I think I'd tread pretty lightly before making an either/or judgement like that. From personal experience as a foster parent, an adoptive parent, a counselor, what I'm really saying is, "Pardon me, your ignorance is showing."
The foster parent program IS a large part of the social safety net. As a foster parent you are a part of the social safety net. I am saying that there should be plenty of funding for that.
Every person I've met who migrated here did so with GREAT difficulty and in order to help their families. I know a Pakistani guy who came on a perilous journey through South America just to make $$ to send home. My Salvadoran friend, Yesica, came alone at 18 through MX, where she was imprisoned for a time. Talk about sacrifice! I know many stories. WHO in hell wants to leave their home country and travel- with the distinct possibility of injury and/or death? Them that want to help their families. That, Je, is a "personal responsibility" we rarely hear about, unless we listen.
How do you enforce “personal responsibility” or even define it? You seem to equate personable responsibility with deprivation and suffering in order to “deserve” a decent life. Someone else might equate personal responsibility as using your wealth - if you’re fortunate enough to have it - for causes that do good. How many billionaires are personally responsible under that definition? Someone else might equate personable responsibility with owning your decisions, actions and choices. How many Republican politicians have said horrible things on camera or tape and then try to have us believe “ they were taken out of context” or call it “fake news”. Not that Democrats haven’t used the same ploy, but I find “personal responsibility” to be a dog whistle used by the Republicans to support draconian policies.
You’re right that “personal responsibility “ has been used as a cudgel by Republicans to paint all taxes as inherently inefficient, intrusive, and evil. But if I see a person buying a fancy item when their family is suffering, yes, I will judge. Yes, if I see a person driving wildly and causing others to swerve and crash, I will judge. Of course there are myriad gray areas (a single mom leaving her child in the car while she shops for a few minutes because she’s got no time nor enough support is one example). But still, personal responsibility in small and large things is required for society to work.
In my opinion, the corporate consumer based economy we live in benefits from a society of people who are not accountable for their own decisions. The medical disease industry is a perfect example. There is a pathetic lack of education directed towards keeping the population healthy. Instead we spend/ make billions on diseases ever growing the amount of disease industry profits. Newer, more expensive drugs to treat lifestyle driven illnesses. I know from decades of treating these folks.
There are lots of efforts from our own health insurance companies, from universities, from local governments, from schools, and elsewhere to teach people how to keep themselves healthy. Yet these efforts fail if they are underfunded, or if the funding is taken away (by Republicans, for instance), or the necessity of taking basic steps like vaccinations is countered by ignorant tropes on social media or by actual government appointees who are qualified only to tear down the public health system. That latter promote "freedom" to choose not to vaccinate, dedicated to undermining that very personal responsibility to do what is necessary to keep society healthy.
Some years ago I recall some expert on world hunger said on the radio that hunger was not a shortage problem so much as a political problem. That seems to be true. And a whole lot of politics in about money.
JennSH, that is such a real statement! I have only know 2 people with 'riches' in my life who used it for the betterment of fellow man. Al the other ones were tone deaf & blind to anything other than account balances. If they don't pay 'dues' in this life, they surely will in the afterlife!
Not only walmart, but all of the big box retailers. I am doing a part time gig at one large big box and we have employees with food insecurity. The store solution is for us, employees, to start a food pantry. The company has a corporate wide employee assistance fund that employees contribute and the company matches to help employees. All good things that ignore the most glaring factor- the company posts record profits, but the workers at the lowest levels are paid less than a livable wage. Not a problem for a retiree with other income, but a problem for the regular worker trying to make a living.
Part of the plan to deport so many immigrants and take support away from people who need it is to get poor Americans to work for very low wages in the fields. These Republicans are already challenging the 14th Amendment, they are ready to challenge the 13th as well. Let people die in the fields if they can’t work hard enough.
From the time of the American Revolution, feudalism has strived to return.
Today it's wrapped in capitalism and technocracy (with racism & xenophobia baked in), but the basic principles didn't change - whether they pretend to be a theocracy, a fascist, or a communist government, what results is a rigidly tiered society, with an aristocracy of some kind at the top and a wide layer of wretched and expendable poor people at the bottom who are treated in much the same way as livestock.
Passage of that bill from the Senate was a blow to everbody's freedom, but we're not beaten. The idea that the people create the state and that the law applies even to kings has been let out of the bottle. It won't die. So today, the same as the old IWW folks used to say, "DON'T MOURN, ORGANIZE!!"
"Poor" Americans will never do the kind of work immigrants do. Hours in the hot sun, disgusting unsafe poultry processing, lousy housing.....
Come to think of it, Project 2025 probably forecasts a time when the conditions of poor Americans is so grindingly terrible that they WILL do anything for a scrap of bread.
And this is all happening before people lose their health insurance and no migrants are left to work on farms and meatpacking plants. It is beyond painful to watch the disintegration of this great country right before our eyes. What good is having more money than you'll ever spend while watching people suffer?
These workers have been a boom to the US economy for many decades and a real good money maker for a many industries.....like ALL the food industries.....
To paraphrase FDR, there are two ways of viewing the human social system.
The behavior of POTUS numbers 17, 37, 47, etc., implies that there are multiple systems where others are relevant to “my” system only when they are a resource or a threat.
The behavior of POTUS numbers 16, 39, 46, etc., implies that there is one system currently comprised of roughly eight billion “always relevant” subjects.
It’s amazing how a tendency toward the former makes everyone losers and a tendency toward the latter makes everyone winners. Go figure.
Rickey, and how can a "worker" (employee) ever get to some point where they can afford the down-pauyment on a house? Fuggedddaboudit! Housing shortage? Shortage for whom? Like who can afford one anyway.
The problem with unregulated power is that you can use power to gain power, and that has enslaved and oppressed humanity from the get go. You see it in the popular "Monopoly" game, which is fun on a table-top, but not in real life where the losers sleep under a bridge. It is also a great problem that power tends to corrupt, of which there are endless real-world examples. Our greatest enemy is the cruel and rapacious side of our own human nature, combined with our expanding technical power to do as we please. Unbalanced and unrestrained, it has brought about the tragic death of millions, generally to serve the arrogant egos of a few overly powerful men; and that increasingly threatens to erase our whole species, along with many, many others.
Where is the good in that? Are we not unbelievably lucky to enjoy human sentience on a remarkably beautiful and sustaining, even if sometimes hazardous, planet? People have been asking if we could "just get along" for centuries, and yet greed and cruelty keep breaking through.
There is a weird human "high" to inflicting cruelty. But isn't that really, really sick? And really dangerous? Why is it so, so hard to put away?
They won't pay more. My nephew & his wife could not even afford the crappy health insurance when they worked for Wallyworld. Heaven forbid you needed to take a day off due to illness! It's all about building the family fortune. How much money do you need as a family!
This post by Heather is what every American needs to understand right now. It should be on the front page of the New York Times! Those who still support Trump and the Republicans in Congress are either disgustingly wealthy and greedy or are just oblivious to what is going on.
Exactly, I was thinking about this last night. They are in the dark because they only listen to their right wing commentators and never read articles. I often wonder if they watch any TV series that I watch because so many of them point out the failures of today’s politics. Medical dramas show how poor people and POC are ignored and not provided care. Legal shows point out racism and greedy politics. Even sitcoms show us the reality of this country.
Ally, I was at a book reading done by a friend last Friday and so, you would think that people there would at least read a little. The two people I was sitting with told me that they did not read. Eek. My husband was luckier. He talked with a man who was a Dickens fan.
Just did a scan of TV stations. Nah, just ads, celebrity news, and morning tv blather. No hint of the five alarm fire. Business as usual in commercial America. Unless ICE is after you. Sorry, I can’t abide Fox or Mica/Joe anymore. My local paper didn’t print my last letter but op-eds are all chumpettes
JD, our local Gannett rag long ago gave up having an editorial page, so there are no letters. I still see letters on the Oregonian live and I assume they are in the print edition as well. Maybe I shouldn't make that assumption.
Tried to watch some TV this afternoon & saw reporters, waiting in excitement to interview or just see Court people from Diddy's trial! How friggin important was that today after the stupid budget bill was passed!
Marilyn, some people are going to work the system and often they are not poor. They criticize government programs until they need them and then they are first in line. The people who mow our lawn (at least no one has grabbed them...yet) and clean the house are not rich and they work hard. Most of the hard labor jobs around here are done by Hispanics because no one wants to be up on a roof in summer heat, for example. I did find out that there is hierarchy within construction or remodeling projects many years ago. The school had a large project going and I needed something done and the guy I spoke to informed me that he was not a floor dog. This was before the influx of Hispanics to do the scut work.
That's the very definition of magas as far as I'm concerned. It's easy to dismiss the struggles of others, as opposed to being greatful for what you have. These people are pious and lazy of heart.
David, some of them think that their taxes are going down and are against government and taxes. Even my high school government students knew we needed one.
Michele, you are to be congratulated for teaching high school government. That is where a positive impact can be made. If the Big Ugly Bill gets passed now, those people will have a year and a half to see that their taxes won't go down. Instead, their expenses will go up. Perhaps their high school children will suggest a different outlook!
FDR did not fail, many of his reforms laid the groundwork for a decent middle class. He reformed the banking and securities industry, He got the Wagner Act, which enabled Unions to be formed, and, a forty hour work week and of course he passed the Social Security Act. His approach to agriculture, helped repair the damage of the dust bowl years, and, he established a CCC civilian works program to provide jobs. And, on top of all that, he created the TVA which controlled floods and produced power. Hoover Dam was pushed though at the same time. So, he did not fail, but, succeeding Republican administrations, after Eisenhower and Nixon, created the problems we have today, It began with Reagan, and, had continued in almost every Republican administration since then. But, the Democrats were partially complicit, Clinton's centrist approach moved the party away from its working class base to the professional class.
I’m not saying FDR failed. FDR’s LEGACY safety net program failed - because of racism, selfishness, and greed.
Does Social Security system work? Not well enough these days. Why? Because of people in government (Republicans) sabotaged it.
It is like if FDR built a bridge and it helped everyone. Everyone was happy with it except those who begrudged Certain People using it too.
So over the decades, Republicans essentially cut back on its maintenance, dug out the ground from underneath some of the bridge supports, and then blamed FDR for its instability and expensive cost of repairs. Then eventually Democrats ignored the astronomically-expensive problem and the anticipated sacrifices and fights they’d make in Congress to get the funding. Republican engineering of things like this helped Democrats become the Do-Nothing Democrats they get called today.
Biden was not a do-nothing president. I know, it’s not fashionable to tout his achievements because we’re too enmeshed in calling him senile and blaming him for Trump’s win.
He pushed through FDR-like bills that among other achievements brought about infrastructure improvements, clean energy, lowered cost of medications, child credits, and he also rebuilt our strategic partnerships in the world which had been badly damaged. He ushered us out of the pandemic era and was able to deftly produce a measure of bipartisan support. He kept our post pandemic inflation among the lowest in the world, and by his last year in office The Economist touted “The US Economy Is The Envy Of The World”. GDP in record territory, unemployment historically low, inflation coming under control.
Republican and adversarial foreign propaganda (Biden Crime Family, Hunter’s Laptop, Sleepy Joe, millions of rapists and murderers crossing our borders, cost of eggs et al) spoke louder than Democrats who touted their achievements in whispers.
And who still seem to be whispering, and blaming each other, at a time when their loudest voices and some leadership are required.
I don’t know where you got the idea I was criticizing Joe Biden. I’m just telling you how one political party engineered the country’s public opinion aka propaganda of another political party.
“…eventually Democrats ignored the astronomically-expensive problem and the anticipated sacrifices and fights they’d make in Congress to get the funding. Republican engineering of things like this helped Democrats become the Do-Nothing Democrats they get called today”
I’m editing this to add…Biden stood out for not ignoring the difficulty, by forging ahead despite. And it bore results.
No, you weren’t disparaging Biden but my point was to dispel yours that Democrats in total became the party of Do-Nothings.
Clinton was trying to counter the Republican propaganda machine (which had many Reagan Democrats) and was a significant force in early 90’s thanks to Rush, Lee Atwater, the Nixon left overs, and their ilk. Especially the “think tanks” and economic greedy bastards given permission and rationale by the Powell memo. That zipper got in the way, and allowed a diversion better than chump could have dreamed up. That said, he was leaps and bounds better than any republican. Then or now.
Lee Atwater went on an apology tour before he died of terminal cancer. I thought he needed to do more than apologize to certain people abd looking back he didn’t do enough but one has to give him his effort and you would have thought someone would have thought to continue on.
Sadly, Clinton tripped on his appendage. He also should never have put HRC in charge of anything Not only a bad look, she was incompetent -- Hilarycare.
I survived "Reinventing Government," a precursor to DOGE. Bullshit concepts laike "welfare as you knew it and NAFTA.
That said, GWB tried to do most of the stuff Trump is now doing. Tried to privatize everything. SSA trust funds. Congress came to the rescue. Many GWB appointees were duds.
To paraphrase Bob Prince, he had larceny in his heart, but lead in his feet.
I agree that he”tripped.” My bff quoted Linda Tripp to me ad nauseam. I never have thought that HRC was incompetent but her efforts sure gave Repubs ammunition. Way more competent and appropriate than Jared and Ivanka. Yes, I watched the W/Dickie fiasco with such disgust, and I watched Obama be vilified for trying to mitigate the mess. Sort of like Joe being vilified for successfully mitigating chump’s first disaster. But our media sure “Orwelled” every aspect of reporting on both these democratic administrations. W gave Mitch the “courage” to go for broke with his power. This time they have made sure that the duds have support from the “elected” traitors. Vlad is waiting in the wings. My take is that the P2025 cretins are in cahoots.
Hillary is a sound lawyer and politician but the medical insurance commission wrought for anyone who would have been put in charge. Who funded the George and Martha scare tactic adds?
Laws allowing Certain People access to public swimming pools, led to having the swimming pools drained and filled with concrete. Afterwards it was your Personal Responsibility to afford to build your own swimming pool or afford the fees for a private swim club.
Lisa, not all religions have strings attached. Catholic Charities serves 15million folks a year, regardless of their faith or no faith. You do not have to be Catholic to be helped and there is no proselytizing going on, no prayer service you have to attend, no commitment to Jesus you have to make.
Over 200,000 people volunteer. It is the largest non- governmental service agency in the country.
The passage of the "Big Bill" is deeply immoral and corrupt and will mean that groups like Catholic Charities will be challenged even more to provide help. They have been doing it since 1910!
Carol, I am glad that Catholic charities do not have strings attached. We pass o the way home from the Saturday Market a fundy church that does biweekly food boxes. I do hope they give freely without strings.
This lack of medical care for people, sounds like putting the old or sick on ice floes. (Watch out! Those who don't believe in global warming won't have too many ice floes to use.)
I just did a look up about who needed Medicaid and the SNAP program. FULL TIME WORKERS in some major businesses such as emergency, McDonalds, Amazon, don't make enough money to buy their groceries and get private medical insurance. It is not the undocumented workers although there is an emergency medical program for them which cost .4% of the Medicaid budget.
Yes, it does seem like a melting ice floe. They should at least legalize assisted suicide instead of burying people before they’re dead, just because they’re too poor to afford food, can’t afford healthcare coverage, and/or cannot work for whatever reason. What they’re doing is just slow murder, in my opinion.
That's a bit of an overreach in your statement about "religions." There are many faith communities who provide help for people in need no matter what they do or don't believe. Yes, there are some that do.
There *are* people who live the way Jesus taught...and no doubt people of other faiths...who work quietly and get things done. It's the people who have to be in front of a mic and make sure that the cross around their neck is showing while telling lies and doing exactly the opposite of what Jesus taught that you have to look out for.
You’re off base about the religious piece- many churches and religious NGO worked hand in hand with government programs to feed people, clothe, and settle immigrants. Participation in the church or churches has never been a requirement. In fact- a number of religious organization will have to close without their government grant. (Catholic social services Refugee resettlement already closed.)
Thatsa grim view Lisa. I commend you for exposing it to us'ns who would read it and give it thought. And, WHY (???) would anyone, even you, write something like this? Welp.., because the callousness we are indeed witnessing, with our very eyes and ears is almost more than one can stand. However, as you alluded, when everything has gone...."god" will have a hand out (extended) for all those who feel helpless. Women will return to the kitchen to scrub floors, except for wealthy women who will have maids. Men will turn the cranks and wield the whip. Only Fans days will be numbered.
Her dim view is the reality that we must scream from the rooftops, but we still have sports, celebrities and religion to focus and divert. Fox still reaches the masses and churches still preach blasphemy. Jesus has been kicked to the curb. The WORD is rewritten, chump style. Word salad and colossal lies.
It was a strange kind of stoicism being advocated by Senator Joni Ernst, being applied only to many of her own anxious constituents who were clearly more likely to die sooner as a result of this wretched Bill. She might as well have told them to 'suck it up, losers' because that's how her response and subsequent non-apology came across.
Russell, I suggest that Ernst's view isn't stoicism, but nihilism. True, stoicism leaves no room for empathy, but it posits that one should live mechanically as a "life system," without the pleasure of embellishments. The stoic does only what is necessary and eschews that which is pleasurable.
Nihilism purports that nothing matters because we're all going to die eventually. Ernst actually said the second half of that thesis.
I was using the word in its use in general parlance rather than the school of philiosophy i.e. a calm acceptance of things that are out of one's control. Senator Ernst's 'look guys, worse things happen at sea' approach belongs to no school of philosophy that I know of. It was cynical, but not in the philosophical sense.
It's interesting now though that Trump is saying that he's not in favour of massive cuts to spending programmes, positioning himself nicely to lay the blame on Republican members of Congress for any public blowback if the Bill becomes law. Lawmakers now can't go to their constituents and tell them that they voted for Trump and this is his Bill.
Ugh! That f*ckin' guy, Donald! He has literally lived his entire life doing whatever the hell he wanted without regard for how his actions might affect others. Then, when the consequences blew up, he blamed whomever was nearby and denied having any connection.
"Mom, if you see a broken vase in the living room, Freddie did it."
"I never met the guy. I think he got coffee one time."
And rightly so, Kimberely. Only three Republican senators voted against the Bill but Vance cast the deciding vote. But they are all enablers in one way or another.
Gee, the repukes have gone from “death panels” (remember Sarah Palin) to “we’re all going to die; we’ll get it over it.” There are no words to describe the cruelty.
Criminal insanity coming from the party of " life" J L. It took 45 years of relentless planning and execution, since Regan started this history in reverse to get to this point. About half of that time we had Democrat administrations that did nothing to prevent what's happening now. We all will pay the consequences and it would be deadly for too many.
Ricardo, most of us are just as pissed off and frustrated as you are, but I disagree that Democrat administrations did nothing to prevent what's happening today. Clinton balanced the budget for several years and the stock market soared. Obama passed the ACA which helped millions of people afford health care. And Joe Biden oversaw over 70,000 much need infrastructure projects, provided additional health care for millions, and provided support for renewable energy projects. If the fucking Republicans hadn't bought the House and Senate back with big donor money and lies, otherwise so much more could have been accomplished.
EVERY REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT since Lincoln has ushered in at least one recession or depression and every Democrat President has had to bail out the economy. And look at what CA, NY, MD, MA and many other blue states are doing. I went to a town hall my state Senator put on last Saturday. The state legislature had to waste many days of their session trying to figure out how to cover their budget because of Trump's Fascist with holding of Federally approved funding.
Cleaning up the vomit that Republicans spew is a full time job and the Democrats are down on their hands and needs across the country cleaning up the messes the Republicans leave them.
It's more than Democratic leaders; it's Democrats who continue to support the greedy bastards that fund the sleazy, cruel Republicans. Bezos just threw a wedding for himself that cost somewhere around $60,000,000,000 and it is reported that he paid no taxes last year. Yet every Democrat will happily log on to Amazon when they want something. IF all those Democrats stayed off Amazon for a month.... If all of them never visited a Musk showroom and dropped their X accounts... If all of them discontinued their Facebook accounts and Google accounts. The Dems are bleeding from thousands of self-inflicted wounds.
I do wish I'd see some Democratic leaders in the streets in the demonstrations and rallies. Where are the Schumers and Jeffries??
For the last week, I've been posting (okay--sometimes ranting) that we need a BOYCOTT WEEKEND equivalent to the NO KINGS protests. The visuals of the protests went viral. We need visuals of empty parking lots at the big box stores, deserted malls, and hundreds upon hundreds of photos of workers standing idle at their registers and fast food grills, etc.
Support the small businesses before or after. Ultimately, will it impact the big guys bottom line? Probably not, but as the saying goes, a photo is worth a thousand words.
Robin, you've seen it! "We the People" are being hauled off.., detained.., given a criminal record. And, if you're not being "hauled off".., it's because "We the People" are choosing to remain indoors and watch the tube as others are. Certainly , I would like our streets and cities to be safe places AND unruly behavior kept in check. But, what we have taking place today represents an entirely ulterior-motive. Somehow, peace-ably we've got to recognize it and make the corrections. That's about as peaceful as I can express it.
This is so tiresome, the Rs destroy our system of government and way of life, and people like you blame the Ds. Should there be boycotts and direct action? Yes, but I refuse to read and accept junk like this to say we are at fault.
Bezo is a great example of one whos riches have blinded themselves to reality. Too bad his boat didn't sink & get his 'wife's' expensive dress ruined...
hahahhaaa.., Good Question Michael. Those guys you mentioned don't want to get arrested for "impeding progress" were they to take part in some demonstration where ICE shows up.
To be fair, Clinton with Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin as Secretaries of Treasury, de-regulated the finance sector and thus Wall Street. Both Summers and Rubin are Chicago School of Economics style neoliberalists. This played out rather badly in 2008 and 2009. Reich can illuminate this more fully,
Thank you. And this is the heart of the problem - even during this republican led abomination, we have the Ricardos of the world with the "both sides" while polishing their purity progressive medals This cruel bill has no rival on the Democratic side. And by the way, "we" voted this in. Either consciously or by indifference. Take some accountability.
Thank you Gary for explaining the difference between what Democratic and Republican administrations focus on. It is now up to us to choice what we want.
I don't deny democrat administrations did implemented great policies on behalf of we the people. Every one of them. But neglected the no so too underground actions that culminated with Proyect 2025 being implemented. In any case your comment is well taken GJ.
OK, here we go again. The old "Circular Firing Squad". I can agree that Democratic leaders are far from perfect. I will wait patiently while someone here who is saying "Democrats are complicit" comes up with the perfect political party and the perfect person. Waiting...still waiting.
Gary's response says what's in my heart. And here is what is in my head:
Blaming Democrats now for the problems we face is pure self destructive bullshit. It's whimpering and whining instead of joining the fight against Fascism. It is utter foolishness. It aids and abets the enemy.
I don't desagree with you Bill but just to be very brief here, let me highlight just one point. Had trump be in jail as he should, the closure of the circle started with Regan, won't be happening.
Agreed. Totally. My personal favorite retroactive rabbit hole is as follows:
Biden was in many ways, one of our greatest presidents. But, IMO, the third biggest mistake he made was nominating Garland to be AG. Trump should have been arrested and charged with sedition by the end of January 2021. Locked up, no bail, flight risk. Evidence? Seriously? It was on TV. Roll the tape.
Number two was allowing Thomas to become a Justice of the Supreme Court. Of course, once his corruption was revealed, he could have called for his impeachment...but there I go...down the hole...
Number big Biden mistake? Running for re-election. All that being said, I still love the guy and what he accomplished in the face of very great opposition.
Back to my point. We are a messy argumentative political party. Like a family that screams at each other as they say "I love you". Like in the series called "The Bear".
But we are in agreement on a lot of stuff like the reality of a Climate Catastrophe and the horrible, murderous inequity of income and assets. Sen Slotkin is joining Sen Murphy in the big tent approach. Mamdani ran on "affordability"!
Today's Edition by Hubbell speaks to my point. Thanks for engaging, Ricardo.
With you on everything, Bill. Except I would skip Biden's vote to confirm Thomas as a Suprette. He would've been confirmed with or without Biden's vote, so that's a moot point. Likewise, calling for Thomas' impeachment would have been the right thing to say, but with MAGA House and Senate, he might has well have been screaming into the abyss. Maybe that's the rabbit hole you mentioned.
Great points all Bill. We should try to avoid absolute language and hints of conspiracy theories that turn people away. Even the greatest of us make mistakes, as you just pointed out.
Sorry? Democrats are responsible for trump’s crimes going unpunished? Bill is right; democrats are oh-so-willing to criticize their own party. But in what way does that contribute to stopping this madness? Do republicans, who SHOULD be loudly and ferociously criticizing their own party, spend hours nitpicking the historical failures of the Bushes, Reagan, Trump? Are we afraid of becoming our own cult, blindly believing and saluting our leadership? We demonstrate our own independence by criticizing Harris for her loss rather than pressuring for more investigation of “anomalies” in the election?
I don’t excuse myself. I grew up with so much faith in democracy and democratically elected leaders that today’s corruption and cruelty have caused me to fall into despair. In my despair, it’s hard not to believe the worst of politicians and I tend to look for evidence that confirms it - like a religious fanatic whose faith has been shattered and now is just as fanatically atheistic. I can barely get up in the morning if I can’t focus on those heroes who still believe in kindness, generosity and democracy.
Marge, in what way democrats attitude and always by the book proper manners are responsible for trump not being in jail? Open your eyes please. That's just one of the many failures. We shouldn't have to be in this situation, about to lose our democracy, the envy of the civilized world and still deny that we are also responsible for not acting in whichever way possible. Consequences will be tragic.
Couldn't agree more. Self-indulgent pitter-patter and irrelevant nonsense.
It's been said Republicans used to be the party of 'fall in line' while Democrats were the party of 'fall in love.' Since that time, the Republican 'line' echoes with goose-steps, while Democrats have become obsessed with drafting their new advertisement for the perfect nanny....
"She must be kind and must be witty, very sweet and fairly pretty,
Take us on outings, brings us treats, play games, bring sweet (no warts).
Never be cross or cruel, and never give us castor oil or gruel....
Ricardo, I think the timeline extends longer than 45 years. It began about 75 years ago, when the Democratic and Republican parties swapped platforms. Prior to that, the Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln, operated on the premise that everyone is created equal. The Republican Party was formed 100 years earlier as pushback against the beliefs engendered by the "Founding Fathers" that only white men were capable of being in charge. But in the 1950s, the GOP was overcome with lust for power and devised the "Southern Strategy" to exploit the racism that continued to seethe in the Southern states, vanquished in the Civil War. Ever since, that lust for power has animated the GOP, abetted by the religious right that fear they are losing control over U.S. culture.
As the national complexion has gradually darkened over the decades, and the GOP ethos has become less popular, Republican legislators have exploited the legislative devices originally intended to prevent the U.S. from becoming an autocracy that enabled the minority to still have some say, propelling themselves into a minority with unchecked power.
It is untrue that Democrats "did nothing." When in the majority, Democrats did what they could to undo some of the damage done by the GOP, but were hampered by the GOP minority exploiting the tools previously mentioned. Likewise, Democrats have tried to slow the roll of Republicans toward racist, religious fascism. But rules in both houses prevent the Democrats from being very effective.
You might be right Dale but what really matters it's happening now,when the circle that started 75 years ago or 45 years ago is closing up. And if people think that everything will be back to normal after the midterm election, maybe they should be questioning if they are going to risks it all in one bet. My gut feeling is that the election will be rigged or canceled under state of emergency, sedition, martial law or the insurrection act. I hope I'm wrong. Thanks for your comment Dale.
Agree, Robert. When the underlying philosophy of a governing body is…”we are all in this together, there is enough to go around.”, then policies improve infrastructure, health care, renewable energy methods, education, etc. Alignment of governance is in order with We the People.
No so with Project 2025 and Trump2 admin. They do not honor We the People, only “Some of the Sum”. Cull the population. Strip the care, strip the resources, strip the good… in favor of more for less.
I believe this cannot last. The highest power of Light and Love does not have an opposite. It is why evil is always temporary. The intent of the current administration will die trying.
I feel this deeply. I want to live in a country where we care for one another, where policy reflects compassion and shared responsibility. Whether we call it justice, morality, or simply being human, it’s the kind of world I am committed to building.
Robert, we can call it socialism, or humanism, morality or justice, but let's call it what it is: Pragmatic Capitalism. Grover Norquist wants a government that provides for the accumulation of vast amounts of wealth by the few (Oligarchy) while providing for police to keep the peace. Nothing more.
By contrast, Frances Perkins, the "mother" of Social Security, believed this: "The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to facilitate the means by which all the people under its jurisdiction can access the best possible life." There can be no separation between government and the economy. Were it not for 340 million Americans, Bezos, Musk and Zuckerberg would not be billionaires. All of us are entitled to health care, housing, an education, food, water, security, employment and more.
Novel? Not at all. Matthew 25: 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Richard ….Grover whoooooo? He’s been dead for a long time in political terms. Why are still living in your history book.. try living in what the Scottish call “the now” and I’m sorry for being here but I heard Heather’s message and I just felt compelled to chime in…. and I understand it was a completely disastrous week for liberals this week for a dozen reasons upon Which I will elaborate once the Big beautiful Bill bill passes or fails. Although Patty Murray did, in fact try to change the name which I got a kick out of.
Rick, I'm an atheist, believing virtually nothing in the Old Testament and the New Testament, though I quote from them on occasion. In a way I do wish that some of it was grounded in fact. It would give me great psychic satisfaction knowing that virtually every single MAGAT and every Republican politician will fry, baby, fry. That may be unfair in that some MAGATS may simply be too stupid to grasp the subtle differences, i.e., lack of critical thinking skills.
Well, it ain’t fryin yet and ain’t going to fry for at least 3 1/2 years although the last administration is NOT ONLY FRIED….past tense but it’s BURNT TOAST. so much for your predictions. Where was the critical thinking the last four years when people couldn’t afford to eat because prices were up 20% interest rate of triple mortgage rates, triple cost of gasoline doubled. Great critical, thinking. And please don’t waste your time defending it. It’s useless it’s factual. It’s in the books and it’s done now.
Rick, now I know - your sources of information are Fox, OAN and/or Newsmax. How do I know? Because the American economy was" the envy of the world" while our inflation rate was among the lowest in the world. [Wall Street Journal 4-12-2024 and The Economist, 10-19-2024.] Sadly, ignorance was and is an element in Trump's support. What you just wrote above is, to put it in the vernacular, bullshit.
Exactly, Robert! Our government was founded to protect and serve--not harm--us. It's wrong for it to harm us. I totally agree that good people look out for and help each other. Let's spread the message that "Americans help each other!" and "Harming America and Americans is unpatriotic!" These rallying cries could unify and galvanize Americans across ideologies in diverse settings!!
Reminds me of the debate in which Ron Paul took part in the republican debate of 2008 or ‘12 (can’t quite remember). He asked rhetorically:”do we all let these people die?”(it was something of that order). And the crowd chuckled and essentially said yes. This sick attitude that republicans have goes way back. As I’ve always said on these posts: “with republicans, it’s always been about the money!”
Oh noes! Don't call it socialism! Run away! Hair on fire!
One of my doctors, who I otherwise respect, told me that voting for Harris was voting for socialism. This was in reaction to the Harris stickers on my walker.
She is now astonished that the short-fingered vulgarian is doing the things he's doing. Because she is my health care provider, I have refrained from saying, "But at least he's not a 'socialist.'" Also, she did say, "You were probably right."
Whewww!! Robert, I wish we could stop applying names/words ending with 'ists' and 'isms' to all this. To have any effect the party/person being spoken to needs to know what the heck "it" packs. I'm afraid the effect is lost, or the word is meaningless, or worse. Take 'socialism' for example. Rhymes with communism - BZZZZTTTTT! It goes on to say that if you're a "socialist" you must automatically be a communist.., etc etc. And, (just about) everyone would give "communist" a black flag. Use the word (socialist/socialism).., and you lose! Quit using it (Bernie..! AOC..! ). Then, we move on to the "ists". Fascists.., narcissists, even economists. Forgive me but, I don't think the average person on the street know what the heck is being referred to. Maybe. If they were to guess.., maybe. So, apply the KISS method - Keep It Simple Stupid. Refer to him or her as 'a POS' and elaborate from there and move on. Sen Lisa Murkowski (AK)seems to have been hooked by the budget bill gig-line. POS. Kiss.
I have no problem calling Trump a fucking asshole and did in a recent comment elsewhere. But insults are a form of verbal combat. In this case I was looking for language of engagement, inclusion and aspiration. All are good I think.
Well Robert, I have to commend you. You are the perfect example of liberals today you have only one agenda and that is hate Trump….. what we have right now is the finest example of democracy we’ve had in 50 years. By changing the channel
Then they market it as the ‘Nanny State’ because they get to market fear, hate, and misinformation! We have to teach, explain, share, accept reality, no created facts the fit our FAUX world! No RFuckingK! Fairy tails for the masses, and we have to actually do thing!
As Bill Clinton pointed out, of the 51,000,000 jobs created Dems created 50,000,000! This is a fact! Of the major engineering products, medical research, has been supported by the Federal and state governments…yes our taxes invested wisely for the benefit of all!
We invest, they steal, we think, they have brain farts…really!
Biden was a great presidents with an even better team! We are team players, not god-lets…
Who is more like Jesus? Donny or Joe!? Or Jill and Melania?
Sarah Kendzior in her book “They Knew” best commemorates last night’s Senate activity.
Speaking of the criminal in the White House: “He covered his big crimes with smaller crimes, and covered his smaller crimes with scandals, and in the process attempted to destroy the very notion of truth.”
The Republicans have completed his attempts. They’ve done that for the U.S. oligarchy confident Americans no longer have any truth. Remember, truth is first of all personal. And the hurts to come from opening the way for full-bore oligarchy will be massive, more corrupt, more totally ongoing criminal.
Worst, bereft now so from truth as Sarah Kendzior concludes, we can never more question any of our overlords, any more than in all the years of all the schools and all their testing could anyone ever ask any testers anything.
Hello Phil.... In this MegaBill there is No $$$ for the Unhoused, No $$$ for Sick People, and No $$$ Hungry Children... However there is over $1,500,000,000 for DJT's 'Free' Golden 747 from Qatar, and Billions of $$$ for Bombs for Netanyahu...
The corruption and cruelty of this person and this regime is overwhelming, obscene and frankly disgusting. How is it that so many Americans will follow these criminals off a fricking cliff while screaming “we owned the libs”? It really boggles my mind and keeps me awake at night.
And that’s really the root of the issue, the quest to elect a government that will “own the libs” for them, because frustratingly they aren’t smart enough to understand that their plight in life is actually the fault of the people they vote for
It’s simple: it’s a king’s bill. Bleed the common people dry to fill your coffers for your wars and your palaces and your lavish parties - and at the same time, keep those people poor, hungry and miserable so they stay obedient and don’t attempt any revolts.
Game of Thrones. Right this moment I feel safe. Right now, in my little cozy home, I haven’t felt the pinch. I’m a white citizen born to white citizens. I’m educated. But deep in my heart I know what’s heading our way. The data doesn’t show it yet—all those people who lost jobs because of elon’s slash and burn, all those crops unpicked, all those hurricane roofs that won’t be repaired when the storms come, all those people sick and unable to get tested or cared for, all those elders without nursing home or in-home care, all those women without reproductive care, including during difficult pregnancies, all those precious public lands sold off for profit—all of it paid for by US, American citizens, while the rapists get huge tax cuts. We are supposed to pay for our abuse at their hands. It hurts. I weep. I worry about my kids and grandkids. But I put one foot in front of the other and keep trudging forward.
A lot of painful truth there and these are things that we must face because we haven’t hit bottom yet. We have been running backwards rapidly for a while now and perhaps it’s no surprise that now we are falling. But I have hope that we will hit bottom soon. I’m not a King of Thrones fan so perhaps I didn’t get your meaning on that. You say trudge on and I say climb up from the depths. Not all of the hope of humanity is lost. You have children and grandchildren and so do I. They are our last best hope.
All honest observations . Very sad situation because it feels like we’re boxed in. Dare to protest at your own risk. Now, even peaceful protest can provoke an opportunity to send in the National Guard and Marines.
Thank You Dutch Mike... It is the Corrupted, Cowardly, GOPs Homage to a Crazed Orange Emperor... Notice How The GOP Is Being Purged Of Its Most Moderate Members?...
support our courts who are holding the line. Now. Before too many voting rights are stripped away. Protest, and support the lawyers doing the dirty work for us.
There is no plan B, as you ask. If there is one, I don't know it. But we must do what we can to make sure our elections in 2026 change Congress and gets rid of the trump suck-ups.
I'm glad to see -- relieved -- Heather's assiduousness in documenting the good, valiant attempts by our best Dems to specify, call out, amend the inhumanity, the obvious rank corruption. They're putting Republicans on the record.
Q is, can Dems keep it up when they're also so long proven to possess so few refs to arts or humanities that could keep the passion humanly alight?
Thank You Phil... Since You Are In Japan... Maybe We can borrow from Akido... We can teach our Children Well at Home after 'School'... Teach Them The Why Of Things... Instill a Thirst For Knowledge, and Positive Values... If this Bill passes, and it probably will, Weaponize its Deleterious Effects, and have the Dems run on that... If they cannot do it... Get New Dems...
Despite your leanings, far too far to the left, at least you have the temerity to be patient and wait and see However , when you see my post. When I come back after this bill is passed or not passed there is so many accomplishments by this administration, which decries And up ends all the negativity that was said about everything Trump was going to do the economy the stock market inflation, the end of democracy, the existential threat to America. This past week was a nuclear explosion to the left and I will delineate that in several posts.
And I know you’ll love this comment. There is a lot of comment on the right that you don’t hear they’re not only talking about Nobel peace prize for the three major accomplishments around the world. And they are no longer talking about Mount Rushmore and removing Roosevelt are adding Trump they’re talking about giving Trump is own mt. Rushmore Mountain.
But Wilsie is correct. I believe the economy will struggle for 4 to 6 months unless interest rates are lowered which they should be. As every time there are major changes to anything there is a reaclimation period.
And when people start getting money in their pockets that they didn’t have before and after pay less taxes, and maybe even increase their income by anywhere from six to $10,000, I believe that will calm down.
Put Apache you are correct. We will have to see, but I just love when the Democrats in Congress and Washington have been talking about the the Armageddon of America ever since November 5 and everything that’s happened refutes that so far.
There’s one thing left , no one mentions . Stopping it. Stopping them. Stop the taxes from coming in. Stop working.
It’s been hinted about . A National-across-the-country-non-stop-protest. It can be done in shifts or consecutively day after day .It’s this or (as is stated,spelled out , or in short span after passage …what happens ) slowly letting people die. Bring to the table the maximum requirements…EVERY SINGLE ONE WHO VOTES THIS INTO LAW …GONE…OUT..INCLUDING THE WHOLE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION ..IE ..ANYONE WHO VOTES FOR THIS BILL sans the ones who voted NO!
It will be Primaried alright..by.the.people.and.for.the.people.
Not any ‘deals’. The whole kit and caboodle..out and forever banished . The Red States will be the first to start crying..including my own. The timing is at that point when it is clearly falling apart…per prediction.
Is it the ‘shadow docket’ I’m going to ask to step up to plate? ( I’ve never understood what this was but…)
Democrats can bring about the accountability that hasn’t happened, impeachments of grand scale ( again) all those who voted for.
Can’t be done? We have to wait for 2026? It would be Marshall Law?
Little pigs , little pigs, I’ll blow your WH house down…
TY , Miselle . Can the cigarette smokers ( or whoever..) go w/o for a weekend? Plan ahead..please? Their pocketbook is the Achilles heal ..pointedly..thanks again Miselle. This IS the fight.
I'm NOT 'loading up'! I will eat what is in the cupboard, frig, freezer. Have coffee beans here. I have plenty of clothes, shoes & socks. So, everyone really needs to ask themselves "Is this item a necessity?" Will my family suffer without it? And yes- smokers could use this time to reduce or QUIT smoking- would help us all.
The problem that you have with your concept of democracy….democracy is currently what we have in democracy is currently what’s working right now just as it was during Obama’s first term. Only difference is you don’t agree with the policies. Kamala Harris voted 33 times to break a tie in the Senate ….. twice for budget reconciliation bills, so what’s the difference please tell me?
Phil - I don’t know if there are enough of us with the will to unite in the common cause of saving our country and rebuilding a safe and humane and inclusive society. Look around at all the havoc that has been set in motion since January 21, 2025.There are many sadistic people having too much fun building Alligator Alleys to entrap people who have been our neighbors and important cogs in the wheels turning our economy.
Our national debt could reach a point where the cost of interest outstrips our ability to pay it. Then the profiteers may realize that it is their responsibility to open their vaults and pay a share of their profits to share in our national responsibilities to keep society rolling rather than lurching along.
I can go on but maybe others want to add to the list.
Y’all remember when Trump visited a few African countries and called them shitholes? Well, he has us on the fast track to becoming one of them! He even learned a few tricky ways to skim off money from even the poor and use it to further his self-enrichment. Really!? Are there any other national leaders hawking baubles for sale? He’s an embarrassment and when even his motley crew in congress reach their limits it will be on them to launch their impeachment of him.
Trump in a discussion of limiting immigration from countries with Temporary Protected Status for their refugees reportedly called them "shithole countries". It was widely implied in the press to be anti-black racism by saying "Trump said "why do we want people from shithole countries" and the countries included Haiti and several countries from Africa."
However, the majority of African TPS countries at the time weren't black majority countries. TPS countries are not chosen for poverty, they are chosen for civil war or natural disaster reasons. The three African TPS countries at the time were Sudan (predominantly Arab), South Sudan (predominantly black) and Somalia (predominantly ethnic Somali, which is a Cushitic ethnic group, North African if we're broad brush painting).
So the countries Trump called shithole would not be "black" countries but rather ones affected by civil disruption or natural disaster. El Salvador and maybe one or two other Central American countries were also among the countries at the time due to disruption there.
Personally, I think we need to have people from shithole countries because that's what the point of accepting refugees is - they are suddenly living in an untenable situation and we can help them.
I get your point, but the amount to be spent on medicaid and on SNAP is going to be reduced by the bill, but not eliminated. So there will be $$$ for those programs. I wonder what the rate of increase in dollars spent on medicaid has been over the last 10 years.
Not enough to keep children alive or healthy. If government would pass a decent minimum wage law there wouldn’t be as many citizens needing assistance. Also making mega-corporations and their Board of Directors provide decent healthcare for all their employees would reduce the need for government provided assistance in that area. The wealthy don’t need tax breaks they need to pay what they should for the privilege of living in America where they can pursue wealth beyond measure.
And rent out Venice for their second wedding and associated glittering parties full of people who are famous for being famous, where women wear tight corsets on the lower part of their bodies and very little at all anywhere else.
Anne-Louise, sister of my heart! I posted about this above.
It still amazes me that basically, the entire BILLIONS upon BILLIONS of Kardashian family wealth came about because of one of them laying on her back. Astounding.
By the government, you’re talking about Congress, right? By the way, you know that states are allowed to have their own minimum wage requirements. Did you know that? one of the reasons California suffering sopoorly business wise and people are fleeing in droves. ?
Try running a business on three or 4% profit and then increase wages by 10%. The math just doesn’t work. And here’s why, because what happens is the businesses have to raise prices to pay for the additional payroll what’s the increase in payroll taxes and the matching Social Security fund? and then their products become less affordable for the very people that got the increase.
Well, how hypocritical are you? check out what their debt is and 185,000 homeless people in California right now. And the flight from California right now. And they spent over $20 billion in the last four years on illegal immigrants to feed them clothed them and house them and give them free medical care while 185,000 people sleep on the streets
Drugs and crime the worst in San Francisco which used to be beautiful is now an arm pit with needles everywhere… it has a thriving economy because it has 39 million people. That’s the only reason that they put out the numbers that they have and major companies are leaving.
Lived in California for 30 years and got the hell out of there as hundreds of thousands of people are now doing now. In 2022 alone 1 million people left the state.
It won’t be that there will be no money, but being able to get assistance will become harder and more burdensome for all. And that, the changes in rules, regulations, deadlines, documentation, etc. is the BIG LIE the republicans are covering up when they tell the American people there will be no cuts to health and food assistance. Each of the eight billionaires could individually fund, for a decade, school lunch programs, rural health clinics, etc. and they would never miss a penny. But no…Mr, bezos spends 20 mil on an obscene wedding, and lounges on a 500 mil yacht in another country. Not even supporting the U.S. economy. Oh, I forgot…all the hospitality workers are being deported! Yes, he so desperately needs a tax break so he can continue accumulating wealth at the expense of anyone who labors for him. There will be a reckoning for all who are like him.
And you know what his beautiful first wife has been doing to pass the time since she divorced him for his infidelity? She's a very busy professional philanthropist.
Not to mention the cost of prescription drugs…Why in the hell did they vote not to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices???? There is some fraud and abuse right there. Look, I have no problem with rooting out waste-lord knows our government has a lot of that-but not destroy it all-with absolutely no plan at all to actually fix anything. It’s a fact that the economy does way better under Democratic presidents than R’s. The current regime—-well—-we need a regime change.
When states can't find the dollars to replace the federal share the remaining ingredients dollars can't be stretched for more people. The fixed costs are facilities, staff, and operating costs to provide care to both privately insured and Medicaid/Medicare patients. Medicaid is the essential source of keeping medical facilities open and available to everyone in rural communities and inner cities. Rationing will result along with rapidly rising costs for people who can afford more expensive medical services and those on fixed incomes, even with private or supplemental insurance will be forced out of service right after the former Medicaid folks. The 1600000 number probably underestimates the real number of people with reduced or soon limited coverage.
George Monbiot and Peter Hutchinson capture what is going on perfectly too, in their book, "Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism." What we have is a plutocracy, that is a country that is governed by and for the very wealthy.
Phil, they discuss the funding of University economic programs to teach neoliberalism, and how insidious it has become. There is also a discussion of the funding of foundations to "study" it and tell us how this is real, and spread the work, including the Heritage Foundation, drafter of the infamous Project 2025 document.
I am rereading it with my book club, and will see what he says about K-12. I don't remember that off hand.
All across America biz ed programs just took off. More than doubled all enrollments in all fields of health studies (including medical schools and nursing programs).
And as ALEC got states to cut funding of higher ed, the banks moved in to generate the U.S.'s highest debt burdens to any group ever -- student loan loads much bigger than all housing debt combined. But then, too, as money kept flowing only to the top, nobody built any housing for middle classes or working classes anymore. Luxury housing massively growing at one end, and trailer units at the other.
Her most recent book (this year), "The Last American Road Trip" combines her great love of America with her abhorrence of the criminal class that has taken over.
The main dynamics of her scintillating wit and wide appetites come from coverage of the many trips she's made with her family to enjoy America's vast abundance and variety of national parks. She also loves to stop on the highways and byways for whatever's locally most weird: "the biggest xxx in the world" over and over.
But the reminders are constant, too, of the damages the rich have been doing -- predations which for all her positive energy she keeps questioning, too.
“Remember, truth is first of all personal.” - I beg to differ on that point. Truth is the objective facts. When the truth is hidden, distorted, lied about, and manipulated it becomes personal. How one reacts to truth is personal. The truth exists and it is up to us to find and spread it.
The remaining power the Democrats have and that they are banking on, confident that it’s a foregone conclusion, is demolishing the Fascist party in the mid-terms. But one of the boasting points from mango hitler is that there won’t be any more elections. So our key strategy now is to anticipate what their plan is to dismantle voting rights even further and tune up their suppression plans and fraud strategy. They learned how successful they can be hacking the system and manipulating the process by stealing this election. Musk may not be on board next time since he seems to have killed off any investigations or charges against him already. No matter your take on the election fraud, ignoring the possibility will be at our peril. After all, the second thing you can count on from mango is, after lying, that he will cheat.
I can’t say unequivocally you are wrong, but on elections, at least, you are-he cannot LEGALLY cancel elections. it’s worth reading smart commentators on this subject (Jay Kuo’s article Linda cited above and Heather’s chats).
You think he'll care? He has changed legislation so that he's no longer guilty - don't stop being a criminal, just declare it as not a crime, Adolf Hitler and other dictator's style.
He hasn't cared so far - he didn't give a shit about being impeached because he knows his mob is going to bail him out and SCOTUS gave him carde blanche.
I don't think many Americans realise how incredibly deep in trouble you are.
I am still calling Senators and it is getting close to midnight here in CA. I will continue to call in particular Republicans. If you are up or if you read this on Tuesday. Call your Senator. When it goes to the House call your Representative. You can call other Senators and Representatives. I have and will continue to do so until we get good legislation.
Linda another action that is recommended is writing up amendments that Democrats can use to slow down the bill. Remember Trump wants it done by July 3, so he can continue to fund his ICE program. He will be out of money by then. Here is the link to post your suggested amendments too.
The U.S.Senate is still in session at 3 AM Eastern Midnight Pacific. The session was roiled by a tax attack on renewable energy including wind & solar driven energy systems.
Update: Monday, 3 Eastern, Post-BBB Passage: Senator Murkowski got Alaska relieved from the hostile renewable entry tax as part of the sale of her "YES" vote.
I am working on several projects right now to get my life together and my mom's demented life better supported, and will try to squeeze in some amendment suggestions too.
Brian, you’re slightly off here and I’m sorry I’m here because I was waiting for the passage of the bill by both parties were the failure of the bill by both parties but I see your remark and I would like to offer my difference of opinion
The world is not burning it has been illuminated. And once the bill is passed I will delineate specifically what I’m referring to.
Thank you Linda . I just woke up out here the west coast of North America" ... squeeze in some amendment suggestions too"? That caught my waking eyes ... commenters of the continents unite!
The Big Bastardized sickeningly cruel indecent Bill makes me feel like I’m in the back seat of a bus that just went over a cliff. The U.S. now feels older and colder than it did in the 50’s. What do we do now? Kill the Bill. We fight for humanity, science, a survivable climate, reasonable controls on AI, U.S. democracy, truth, justice, and the American Dream. We must never surrender. My cynicism wants to eat my skepticism, but that’s exactly what the fools on the hill want us to cave in to. I know that we can dig our way out of this hole. Question power. Question authority. Eat the rich.
The Republican Party has been fighting FDR’s New Deal for almost a century and this draconian bill before Congress and Trump in the White House are where this fight has gotten us in 2025. This is what the Republican triumph looks like.
The flag of small government the Republicans have carried since at least the Reagan years has changed. This bunch of Republicans show a particular cruelty towards all Americans. All of us in one way or another or going to suffer tremendously. More and more lately cruelty seems to be the point. This is mindboggling.
"Small government" was always a con. It was always "small" when it comes to access by ordinary people, and "small" where the general welfare is concerned, while big and intrusive, indeed heavy-handed when it comes to serving or bailing out the rich and powerful and imposing their will on the preponderance of citizens and on nations abroad. It Orwellianly named "Supply Side Economics". Who is really supplying what to whom? It's an better sounding cover for changing who the goverment is by and for.
Yes. And Regan was the best con of all. I could not stand him. But now J L something seems to have shifted to some really dark stuff. I check in on congressional hearings. These people are something else. They appear to have no humanity. I have been deeply troubled by this. Take a look at Vought, Bondi and Noem "testifying". Chilling. And Emil Bove? omg.
Of those 4 i have not actually heard Bove speak [only read one of his thuggish missives and a few bites from his employment by *citizen* DirT], but i already know I'm not looking forward to it!
Thanks to Frank Luntz and his coaching of Newt and Faux News, their language came to play of things like look at the millions waste and not that it is only 1%. The actual dollar figure creates more angst than the actual % figure. That is how they are going to get this through - cutting waste, fraud and abuse while wasting, frauding and abusing.
Rickey, I've often commented people can't comprehend large numbers. Years ago, I saw an article where someone converted numbers into time fragments, because people can understand the difference between a second and a year, or so. But I honestly don't think many people can comprehend the difference between a million and a billion--don't even bring up TRILLION!
Belle of the Ranch came up with a GREAT clip yesterday, and its only a few minutes. It is perfect!
Everyone--take a moment to watch this, and help it go viral.
Hello Barbara.... In this MegaBill there is No $$$ for the Unhoused, No $$$ for Sick People, and No $$$ Hungry Children... However there is over $1,500,000,000 for DJT's 'Free' Golden 747 from Qatar, and Billions of $$$ for Bombs for Netanyahu...
Yes, it does, doesn’t it? Making a bill that steals from the poor and leaves people hungry and without health care is cruel in itself, but then calling it “beautiful”? That’s something you would only expect from a cartoon villain going ‘muahahaha’, not from real people. Then again, I’m starting to think there may actually have been a lot of ‘muahahahas’ when this bill was written…
"Beautiful" is an adjective he uses indiscriminately about anything he thinks may be impressive. His communication skills haven't developed since he was about eight.
And while this is going on, the Trump dictatorship is laying the groundwork to disenfranchise and seize the assets of anyone who disagrees with them. Stripping citizenship from naturalized citizens is only the first step.
“There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our successes. The fertile Earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And the children dying of (hunger) must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificates – died of malnutrition – because the food must rot (if not sold at a profit).
…and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”
"The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was banned and heavily challenged shortly after its publication in 1939"
Use/share this spreadsheet as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, as well as those in others. Use your voice and make some “good trouble” ❤️🩹🤍💙
I tried sharing it on BlueSky back in April when I had the Senate tab done and was working on the House one - it was marked as spam and couldn’t be seen by people in comments unless their personal settings were changed to allow them to see potential spam links :(
I can see if I can post it now without it being “spam”. I tried to counteract it being marked as spam by explaining what it was but never got an update/decision.
And thank you for the kind words about it. It has taken a lot of time, but the easier it is to speak up right now, the more likely people will and at a higher volume hopefully!🤞
I don’t think that can legally be done. Should it be what happens, yes, but if they don’t vote then that only leaves yes votes (minus some Republicans with a spine who aren’t voting yes)
Why don’t they refuse to sign refuse to let it leave the room.
Scream for immediate hearings on truth in AI times and use AI to fact check the republican speeches, bring to their constituents. Protest time for equal protection for us. We didn’t get to know or have time to communicate our opinions.
AI - changes how to very some evidence if could be generated by AIs.
So we need a new list of verifiable evidence. Agreed by both.
Good morning, Megan! -- "Are we locusts or are we honeybees?" -- Van Jones. It's only gotten worse since 13 years ago when "Heist: Who Stole the American Dream?" debuted. The "big beautiful bill," which is still being debated this morning, is genocide added to decades of class warfare. It surpasses Sen. (D-MD) Donna Edwards' statement -- it will be the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of the US. Please call Senate Republicans today -- 202-224-3121! Remind them of Sen. (R-IA) Joni Ernst's "We are all going to die," political suicide statement and commit to them we'll make sure if they vote yes, it'll be the same for them. https://youtu.be/Tqs_oSS-Q38?si=mqdG0clLjEW5i4t2
I posted this above, but for all who utilize social media--especially if you have MAGA contacts!--please watch this video (it's only a few minutes long) and post it. I truly believe many people just don't "get" the numbers we're talking about in this Big Bullshit Bill!
My shred of hope, perhaps naïvely, is that once people feel the pain of these cuts, they will understand who caused this pain (not Joe Biden) and they will vote accordingly. Those legislators who are afraid of being primaried by Trump will discover that their constituents will oust them. I know that some of these cuts won't be felt immediately, so it may take a while before some people realize who has betrayed them, but perhaps enough folks will see that they need to elect new members of Congress.
Zohran Mamdani's primary win gives us a roadmap. Candidates and lawmakers must understand that everyone needs and deserves their dignity to be recognized, and affordability is the economic key to achieve moving towards an equitable society.
It's time to follow in the footsteps of our forefathers and split up the US.
"The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world."
My shred of hope is in the state Governors. Newsom is now the Barrier and T wants him gone to chill the rest. They have some national guard. If they could get more time info about this ,
Zz
Likely the conclusions are unpleasant we can only go out right as we can?! In
I have always said that the folks who are worried about PINO’s mean tweets don’t need to worry. Their constituents will kick each and everyone out. At least I pray that the majority of our citizens will smarten up by then.
“You better sit down, Angus. That was malignant melanoma. You're going to have to have serious surgery.'... And I had the surgery and here I am. If I hadn't had insurance, I wouldn't be here. And it's always haunted me that some young man in America..,”
When I talk to a crowd about why we need single payer health care (aka Medicare for All), I explain how lucky I was that my bilateral breast cancers were discovered shortly before I turned 65, and that my docs all agreed that I could wait for my surgery until I was on Medicare. And then I explain how lucky I am that I wasn't a year or two younger, since then my cancers wouldn't have been detected, and I wouldn't be talking to them because I'd be dead.
At that point, there is always at least one audible gasp from the audience. It's clear that they suddenly understand that health care should not depend on age or employment or economic status, but that we all deserve the care that keeps us healthy and alive.
And we also deserve NOT to be bankrupted by medical bills. How does bankruptcy help anyone. The hospital and doctors lose right along with the patients and their families. And then the rest of us lose when hospitals close or the they raise their rates to make up for the people that can't afford to pay, not to mention their other creditors.
Elizabeth Warren has been saying for years that medical bills shouldn't bankrupt anyone.
I should’ve waited for tomorrow to read this one but it’s such a horrible night that I just had to come here to make some sort of sense of it. I’ll be afraid to check the news in the morning. Maybe they’ll still be voting. I just see the country crumbling before our eyes and as it turns to rubble and the sun sets, what will we become? Off to bed…hoping for sleep. Thank you, Heather, as always. Take good care, friend. xo
Here is the latest news, in case you haven’t heard it:
Taking away your citizenship: Here it is, right on schedule. We’ve moved onto the next phase of the plan, where the Civil Rights Division, the once proud crown jewel of the Justice Department, will participate in stripping naturalized American citizens of their citizenship.
Thank you, Dr. Richardson. In 2,000 our National Debt was slightly under 6 trillion dollars, today it is slightly over 36 trillion dollars. Social Security is the largest percentage of the National budget (21%) but 100% of that amount comes from payroll taxes on employees and employers. Don't let the MAGAts fool you. Unless you earn more than $177,000 a year (current cap is over $176,600) YOU and your employer are paying for your own Social Security benefits - not the poor needy billionaires. The law we really need is lifting the cap OFF Social Security contributions so every employee/employer in the Country pays their fair share.
I do not want to steal from the wealthy, I just, like most of you, for them to pony up their fair share of the tax burden. And, I do not want to give up benefits I spent more than 60 years earning so Jeff Bezos can spend 50 million dollars on a gawddamned wedding.
WHY is there a cap on the Social Security tax owed on earnings paid? Seems to me instead of a cap that limits payment, there should be a point at which the tax on extreme earnings goes UP precipitously!
The cap is there because the premise of social security has always been that what you get out corresponds to what you put in. Caps on income, caps on eventual payouts. Raise one and, based on the current model, you should raise the other.
IMHO, the real answer is fairly taxing those with higher incomes and requiring Congress to maintain SS solvency, using tax revenues if necessary.
And what this will do to the economy, ultimately. SNAP and Medicaid funds purchase goods and services. While some of those purchases will continue, it will definitely be at a much lower rate. Then their constituent businesses will want bailouts...
This is the party of “we are all going to die”. We need a party of “we all look out for each other”. Call it socialism, call it humanism. Call it morality. Call it justice.
FDR tried, but racism, selfishness, and greed were too strong.
What is not stated anywhere is the probable goal behind Donalds Death Bill - other than giving the wealthy large returns on their investment in Donald.
One of the Bill’s goals is to let people die if they can’t afford to survive without government assistance. (Assistance from the tax dollars they pay the government will now be given to the wealthy who don’t need it.)
Trump & the wealthy want a society of wealthy and of workers who keep them wealthy. Those who can’t work, will not be allowed to survive with help federal tax dollars. If you’re unable to work or are not wanted by employers, and your family or community can’t afford to help you survive, then you are not welcome to survive in Trump’s America.
That means if your healthcare insurance maxes out, you’ll get booted out of hospitals, rehabilitation programs, long term care facilities, etc. That means your family (usually women) will have to quit their jobs to care for you.
That means if you’re a veteran who was injured physically &/or psychologically, your healthcare options are reduced.
People with healthcare through their employers will find it difficult to get the care they need, especially in the increasing number of healthcare provider, nursing home, & hospital deserts.
Even people who can afford nursing homes & hospitals without insurance will suffer, because many of those facilities will be forced to shut down due to lack of money from Medicaid/Medicare aiding those who can’t afford them. Fewer people who can afford nursing homes or hospitals will be using them, so those facilities won’t have the funds to stay open.
If Walmart workers can’t afford food because Walmart doesn’t pay enough, they will go hungry without SNAP.
The military are going to be very unhappy with the poor health of people forced to join the military (who no longer their support veterans). This is because in Trump’s America, millions of children will grow up under-nourished and be physically (and intellectually) weaker. The military and government know this. Staple foods like bread and milk were originally fortified with extra vitamins & minerals, because the military didn’t want weak recruits or to reject potential recruits who were damaged from poverty-prevalent illnesses like Rickets.
Just FYI, another big beneficiary of this bill, other than the wealthy, will be religions who may or may not help their members. People may feel forced / feel obligation to join religions in order to gain help. For decades, our Federal social safety net was competition for religions. People didn’t their aid as much because the Federal Government replaced some of the community services that houses of worship offered but with strings attached (real or perceived).
F—k the wealthy. F—k Trump and his soulless advisors.
Edit: Edited parts about religion. Note: i generalized because I can’t specify specific religions and specific houses of worship who directly have strings attached to their or who imply strings are attached. Don’t forget that members of a religion are often a part of the perceived strings. If religious leaders and religion members vote for not wanting their government to help others who aren’t like themselves, then there are likely many who resent helping people not of their faith.
Saw a great post on Instagram:
Poverty exists, not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich. Don’t know the author. Totally agree.
💯💥💯💥💯
With all due respect, if you have nothing useful to say, a bunch of emojis will not help you say it.
I would not say that comment demonstrates due respect.
With all due respect, if you have nothing useful to say, a bunch of words will not help you say it.
Doug G - a good riposte. Both comments are valid (in my opinion, of course). My original comment wasn't aimed so much at your post specifically, but rather at the many examples of no doubt heartfelt responses to various items in various forums, including this one -- responses consisting of nothing but a series of emojis. To me that, among other things, is a sign to me that we're losing the ability to express ourselves. I think it's a real problem. Take a look at this Nature Briefing on AI to see the kinds of things that worry me:
https://mailchi.mp/nature/ai-and-robotics-briefing-13893716?e=7ea8658a99
Regards,
JH
He did say something useful--that he agreed 100% with JennSH's post. Why are you so cranky?
Shane G: take a look at my reply to Doug G starting with "a good riposte". It's not crankiness (well, maybe a little), rather concern that we're losing our ability to communicate, think, reason, and to use effectively our beautiful gift of language . Not only "losing", but "giving up".
With all due respect, people do use emoji to express their feelings and opinions.
Maybe we can extend some grace?
bbb (not OBBB!) - please see my posts above replying to Doug G and Shane G. I understand that people use emojis to express feelings and opinions. I see numerous videos about heart wrenching situations; most of the attached comments consist of emojis, sometimes 5 teary-faces, sometimes 10, sometimes more. What do they mean? Are 10 emojis twice as expressive as 5? Instead of sentences crafted by people, we get emojis. The point of my original post is that people are losing their ability to express themselves in a serious way, indeed, they are giving it up. We're also giving up our ability to think and write, to artificial intelligence. This is a subject for a long conversation.
I am conflicted about this. While I agree that those who get wealthy in our society should contribute more to society, and i agree that there is a role for government management of a safety net and further wish we had a more robust social safety net as exists in other countries, I am not hearing any calls for personal responsibility. I can't shake the memory of the sacrifices my parents made so that we had a secure place to live, food to eat, and a decent education plus their attention to societal and governmental programs that helped us along. I agree with the argument that workers are exploited too much, but I want to see more rhetorical attention to personal responsibility and to maintenance of our social fabric.
Why does it have to be sacrifice? Why not just working and thriving? Personal responsibility is NOT the same thing as sacrifice. All this talk of sacrifice is an outdated, yet religious notion that things have less or no value if something or someone hasn't sacrificed something else. It think veneration of sacrifice is actually the evil. Too often, people are told that societal burdens are simply their personal responsibility. Take motherhood. It offers no support systems and puts all the responsibility on the parent(s) (plural only if the dad doesn't abdicate his "personal responsibility". Yet we blame the single mother for picking the deadbeat dad. There are many cases where we blame an individual (most often women) for the actions of someone else. We also blame the poor for being poor, yet the world is literally more expensive for poor people.
And yet we keep mistaking greed for capitalism. *I just cut off the complement at the beginning of my comment, because after getting so many likes for such a simple statement it occurred to me that perhaps people were thinking that I was taking sides in what is obviously a rhetorical argument. That was not my intention. There must be some misunderstanding that I missed. There are good people on both sides. But in all seriousness, I will make the obvious observation that starving babies should never have to bear any personal responsibility.
It is greed when one takes more than their fair share, resulting in others being deprived. The natural vicissitudes of life don't treat people equally, but we have a choice, especially in the formation of non-tyrannical government to protect universal rights. If we, the people, are the ultimate, legitimate authority, then we bear a share of both choice and responsibility for societal outcomes and protecting of universal rights. Self governance is inherently DIY, no? Yet collaboratively. We each play a part.
Excuse me, Barbara. My parents’ sacrifices aren’t demanded of anyone. However, they took them on to raise us well and healthy, to contribute to our communities, help family members when possible, and save enough so their kids didn’t have a financial burden , only logistical and emotional ones, to care for them in their last years.
I ’m painfully aware of people who make mistakes like picking the wrong partner, of others whose only sins are being born on the wrong block or having the wrong skin color. Society has a responsibility to help people help themselves, and take care those that can’t. I would go further and declare that society has a responsibility to care for what it claims it most values, including families and single parents and expectant mothers.
As well, society seems to be demanding new electronics, new cars, and trendy clothes. Isn’t it the responsibility of every individual to spend within one’s means? Shouldn’t it be an individual’s responsibility to pass through spaces without destruction? Personal responsibility is a key part of the fabric of our society, and it’s getting short shrift.
Je Je - Are you figuring into this mindset the fact that racism exists? There are people who may want and carry all the responsibility they can but they are prevented from doing so because they are not the right color. Do you remember when Obama mentioned that as he was walking down a street, he could hear car locks? It is wonderful that your parents were great people but their environment facilitated their life choices. l
I repeat this concept. When all of us work together, including "corporate persons" and under fair rules, sacrifice is minimized and true personal responsibility comes to the fore...a positive personal responsibility to act well, not just a negative consequence dressed up as "taking personal responsibility " or "sacrifice." It’s not dissimilar to Timothy Snyder's new book, "On Freedom" in which he writes about positive and negative freedoms. Positive freedoms build prosperous communities. Negative freedoms build extractive oligarchies.
Personal greed has no bounds & it's easier to listen to the inner voice saying 'buy' than to the one saying check on & feed thy neighbor!
I am choosing to not equate a negative sacrifice with a positive personal responsibility.
Yes, I grew up in the same kind of household as you. Unfortunately there will always be adults who do not rise to the level that our parents did. What about the children of those unresponsible adults? Those children need a social safety net.
Aren't there workhouses and prisons? To paraphrase Dickens. That is the plan.
"...unresponsible adults? Those children need a social safety net." I think I'd tread pretty lightly before making an either/or judgement like that. From personal experience as a foster parent, an adoptive parent, a counselor, what I'm really saying is, "Pardon me, your ignorance is showing."
The foster parent program IS a large part of the social safety net. As a foster parent you are a part of the social safety net. I am saying that there should be plenty of funding for that.
Every person I've met who migrated here did so with GREAT difficulty and in order to help their families. I know a Pakistani guy who came on a perilous journey through South America just to make $$ to send home. My Salvadoran friend, Yesica, came alone at 18 through MX, where she was imprisoned for a time. Talk about sacrifice! I know many stories. WHO in hell wants to leave their home country and travel- with the distinct possibility of injury and/or death? Them that want to help their families. That, Je, is a "personal responsibility" we rarely hear about, unless we listen.
You missed it. He is a Canadian who owns property in both countries
Who are you talking about?
How do you enforce “personal responsibility” or even define it? You seem to equate personable responsibility with deprivation and suffering in order to “deserve” a decent life. Someone else might equate personal responsibility as using your wealth - if you’re fortunate enough to have it - for causes that do good. How many billionaires are personally responsible under that definition? Someone else might equate personable responsibility with owning your decisions, actions and choices. How many Republican politicians have said horrible things on camera or tape and then try to have us believe “ they were taken out of context” or call it “fake news”. Not that Democrats haven’t used the same ploy, but I find “personal responsibility” to be a dog whistle used by the Republicans to support draconian policies.
You’re right that “personal responsibility “ has been used as a cudgel by Republicans to paint all taxes as inherently inefficient, intrusive, and evil. But if I see a person buying a fancy item when their family is suffering, yes, I will judge. Yes, if I see a person driving wildly and causing others to swerve and crash, I will judge. Of course there are myriad gray areas (a single mom leaving her child in the car while she shops for a few minutes because she’s got no time nor enough support is one example). But still, personal responsibility in small and large things is required for society to work.
May I ask who appointed you judge? You can judge yourself but I wonder how many others have given you the license.
Everyone should be entitled to health care, as in my country, Canada.
Because that’s a given.
In my opinion, the corporate consumer based economy we live in benefits from a society of people who are not accountable for their own decisions. The medical disease industry is a perfect example. There is a pathetic lack of education directed towards keeping the population healthy. Instead we spend/ make billions on diseases ever growing the amount of disease industry profits. Newer, more expensive drugs to treat lifestyle driven illnesses. I know from decades of treating these folks.
There are lots of efforts from our own health insurance companies, from universities, from local governments, from schools, and elsewhere to teach people how to keep themselves healthy. Yet these efforts fail if they are underfunded, or if the funding is taken away (by Republicans, for instance), or the necessity of taking basic steps like vaccinations is countered by ignorant tropes on social media or by actual government appointees who are qualified only to tear down the public health system. That latter promote "freedom" to choose not to vaccinate, dedicated to undermining that very personal responsibility to do what is necessary to keep society healthy.
^^^^
I saw that quote and many have said similar. Fits like nesting dolls these days
Outstanding.
Some years ago I recall some expert on world hunger said on the radio that hunger was not a shortage problem so much as a political problem. That seems to be true. And a whole lot of politics in about money.
Insane and insatiable! Greed is the worst! Isn’t greed a sin? Puritans just complain about love, and sex.
JennSH, that is such a real statement! I have only know 2 people with 'riches' in my life who used it for the betterment of fellow man. Al the other ones were tone deaf & blind to anything other than account balances. If they don't pay 'dues' in this life, they surely will in the afterlife!
Today, scarcity has to be enforced.
Not only walmart, but all of the big box retailers. I am doing a part time gig at one large big box and we have employees with food insecurity. The store solution is for us, employees, to start a food pantry. The company has a corporate wide employee assistance fund that employees contribute and the company matches to help employees. All good things that ignore the most glaring factor- the company posts record profits, but the workers at the lowest levels are paid less than a livable wage. Not a problem for a retiree with other income, but a problem for the regular worker trying to make a living.
You know what you need? A UNION!
Organization. The rich can just buy it. We have to build it.
Part of the plan to deport so many immigrants and take support away from people who need it is to get poor Americans to work for very low wages in the fields. These Republicans are already challenging the 14th Amendment, they are ready to challenge the 13th as well. Let people die in the fields if they can’t work hard enough.
Only you and I see this I believe...they want to crash our wages and return to slave wages.
Marilyn, they would actually prefer slaves that they didn't have to pay...maybe just minimal food and shelter maybe.
Techno feudalism
The want to return to autocracy and virtual feudalism; the undoing of the Republic, carried out by nominal Republicans, and wrapped up in a flag.
From the time of the American Revolution, feudalism has strived to return.
Today it's wrapped in capitalism and technocracy (with racism & xenophobia baked in), but the basic principles didn't change - whether they pretend to be a theocracy, a fascist, or a communist government, what results is a rigidly tiered society, with an aristocracy of some kind at the top and a wide layer of wretched and expendable poor people at the bottom who are treated in much the same way as livestock.
Passage of that bill from the Senate was a blow to everbody's freedom, but we're not beaten. The idea that the people create the state and that the law applies even to kings has been let out of the bottle. It won't die. So today, the same as the old IWW folks used to say, "DON'T MOURN, ORGANIZE!!"
"Poor" Americans will never do the kind of work immigrants do. Hours in the hot sun, disgusting unsafe poultry processing, lousy housing.....
Come to think of it, Project 2025 probably forecasts a time when the conditions of poor Americans is so grindingly terrible that they WILL do anything for a scrap of bread.
Project 2025 presumably is OK with an outcome where the poor just die.
Yes. Die young....very soon after retirement.
Anyone on SS and Medicare is worthless. So why have it?
Those republicans are having hallucinations!
And this is all happening before people lose their health insurance and no migrants are left to work on farms and meatpacking plants. It is beyond painful to watch the disintegration of this great country right before our eyes. What good is having more money than you'll ever spend while watching people suffer?
I think there was a guy called Jesus who denounced that very mindset. But he isn’t part of the Red Team’s version of christianity.
I would bet that some farms and meatpacking plants and diaries are paying off the right people to keep their underpaid illegals.
Buying Trump crypto $TRUMP.
and, hanging big ole trump signs all over.
Oh, I am sure there is money changing hands to keep from reporting immigrants.
These workers have been a boom to the US economy for many decades and a real good money maker for a many industries.....like ALL the food industries.....
From pickin' to packing to serving.
They DON"T see. THAT is the problem.
The guy in charge of the country and the world is a very bad person with an old rotted brain.
To paraphrase FDR, there are two ways of viewing the human social system.
The behavior of POTUS numbers 17, 37, 47, etc., implies that there are multiple systems where others are relevant to “my” system only when they are a resource or a threat.
The behavior of POTUS numbers 16, 39, 46, etc., implies that there is one system currently comprised of roughly eight billion “always relevant” subjects.
It’s amazing how a tendency toward the former makes everyone losers and a tendency toward the latter makes everyone winners. Go figure.
Rickey, and how can a "worker" (employee) ever get to some point where they can afford the down-pauyment on a house? Fuggedddaboudit! Housing shortage? Shortage for whom? Like who can afford one anyway.
OMG! Walmart wants their underpaid workers to start a food pantry to donate cans of food to other workers who are underpaid.
Beyond words.....................
NEVER touch your feet to any Walmart property!
The problem with unregulated power is that you can use power to gain power, and that has enslaved and oppressed humanity from the get go. You see it in the popular "Monopoly" game, which is fun on a table-top, but not in real life where the losers sleep under a bridge. It is also a great problem that power tends to corrupt, of which there are endless real-world examples. Our greatest enemy is the cruel and rapacious side of our own human nature, combined with our expanding technical power to do as we please. Unbalanced and unrestrained, it has brought about the tragic death of millions, generally to serve the arrogant egos of a few overly powerful men; and that increasingly threatens to erase our whole species, along with many, many others.
Where is the good in that? Are we not unbelievably lucky to enjoy human sentience on a remarkably beautiful and sustaining, even if sometimes hazardous, planet? People have been asking if we could "just get along" for centuries, and yet greed and cruelty keep breaking through.
There is a weird human "high" to inflicting cruelty. But isn't that really, really sick? And really dangerous? Why is it so, so hard to put away?
Or Walmart could pay its employees more.
They won't pay more. My nephew & his wife could not even afford the crappy health insurance when they worked for Wallyworld. Heaven forbid you needed to take a day off due to illness! It's all about building the family fortune. How much money do you need as a family!
Sad,
This post by Heather is what every American needs to understand right now. It should be on the front page of the New York Times! Those who still support Trump and the Republicans in Congress are either disgustingly wealthy and greedy or are just oblivious to what is going on.
The people who need to read this don’t read the Times.
Or anything else, for that matter.
Exactly, I was thinking about this last night. They are in the dark because they only listen to their right wing commentators and never read articles. I often wonder if they watch any TV series that I watch because so many of them point out the failures of today’s politics. Medical dramas show how poor people and POC are ignored and not provided care. Legal shows point out racism and greedy politics. Even sitcoms show us the reality of this country.
Ally, I was at a book reading done by a friend last Friday and so, you would think that people there would at least read a little. The two people I was sitting with told me that they did not read. Eek. My husband was luckier. He talked with a man who was a Dickens fan.
Ah, yes, Dickens. He wrote about times which the majority of us may soon experience in our own century.
Just did a scan of TV stations. Nah, just ads, celebrity news, and morning tv blather. No hint of the five alarm fire. Business as usual in commercial America. Unless ICE is after you. Sorry, I can’t abide Fox or Mica/Joe anymore. My local paper didn’t print my last letter but op-eds are all chumpettes
JD, our local Gannett rag long ago gave up having an editorial page, so there are no letters. I still see letters on the Oregonian live and I assume they are in the print edition as well. Maybe I shouldn't make that assumption.
Seattle Times still post editorials & comments from readers. Thankfully.
Tried to watch some TV this afternoon & saw reporters, waiting in excitement to interview or just see Court people from Diddy's trial! How friggin important was that today after the stupid budget bill was passed!
It’s really hard to watch any American tv anymore. Shallow and as moronic as half our people are. We have been Foxified, and not just by Fox
I love trials, esp. good ones. I used to attend ones in NYC. It's the ultimate drama with real life consequences.
But this! YUCK! I paid minimal attention to it, esp. after I learned about the "activities"....good lord! I feel sorry for the jury members.
Cancel Cable and get a FireTV stick. Subscribe to an entertainment channel and PBS.
Pay for no ads on Youtube, which is rich with real news and information.
I have Roku, no ads, more music, less “entertainment”
The people who need to read this don't read.
Congressional Republicans need to read it.
withdrawn
the magas I have spoken to believe if you cannot live on your wages, get 2 or 3 jobs. They view poor people as lazy.
Marilyn, some people are going to work the system and often they are not poor. They criticize government programs until they need them and then they are first in line. The people who mow our lawn (at least no one has grabbed them...yet) and clean the house are not rich and they work hard. Most of the hard labor jobs around here are done by Hispanics because no one wants to be up on a roof in summer heat, for example. I did find out that there is hierarchy within construction or remodeling projects many years ago. The school had a large project going and I needed something done and the guy I spoke to informed me that he was not a floor dog. This was before the influx of Hispanics to do the scut work.
Wow.
That's the very definition of magas as far as I'm concerned. It's easy to dismiss the struggles of others, as opposed to being greatful for what you have. These people are pious and lazy of heart.
David, some of them think that their taxes are going down and are against government and taxes. Even my high school government students knew we needed one.
Michele, you are to be congratulated for teaching high school government. That is where a positive impact can be made. If the Big Ugly Bill gets passed now, those people will have a year and a half to see that their taxes won't go down. Instead, their expenses will go up. Perhaps their high school children will suggest a different outlook!
You are 100% correct. The world economic forum had a part in this - we are considered useless eaters and they want us gone..
Muskrat calls us Non participating characters (NPCs). We don’t matter. They have forgotten that they will need slaves. Even Hitler knew that.
What you just described is the real “trickle down effect “!
FDR did not fail, many of his reforms laid the groundwork for a decent middle class. He reformed the banking and securities industry, He got the Wagner Act, which enabled Unions to be formed, and, a forty hour work week and of course he passed the Social Security Act. His approach to agriculture, helped repair the damage of the dust bowl years, and, he established a CCC civilian works program to provide jobs. And, on top of all that, he created the TVA which controlled floods and produced power. Hoover Dam was pushed though at the same time. So, he did not fail, but, succeeding Republican administrations, after Eisenhower and Nixon, created the problems we have today, It began with Reagan, and, had continued in almost every Republican administration since then. But, the Democrats were partially complicit, Clinton's centrist approach moved the party away from its working class base to the professional class.
I’m not saying FDR failed. FDR’s LEGACY safety net program failed - because of racism, selfishness, and greed.
Does Social Security system work? Not well enough these days. Why? Because of people in government (Republicans) sabotaged it.
It is like if FDR built a bridge and it helped everyone. Everyone was happy with it except those who begrudged Certain People using it too.
So over the decades, Republicans essentially cut back on its maintenance, dug out the ground from underneath some of the bridge supports, and then blamed FDR for its instability and expensive cost of repairs. Then eventually Democrats ignored the astronomically-expensive problem and the anticipated sacrifices and fights they’d make in Congress to get the funding. Republican engineering of things like this helped Democrats become the Do-Nothing Democrats they get called today.
Biden was not a do-nothing president. I know, it’s not fashionable to tout his achievements because we’re too enmeshed in calling him senile and blaming him for Trump’s win.
He pushed through FDR-like bills that among other achievements brought about infrastructure improvements, clean energy, lowered cost of medications, child credits, and he also rebuilt our strategic partnerships in the world which had been badly damaged. He ushered us out of the pandemic era and was able to deftly produce a measure of bipartisan support. He kept our post pandemic inflation among the lowest in the world, and by his last year in office The Economist touted “The US Economy Is The Envy Of The World”. GDP in record territory, unemployment historically low, inflation coming under control.
Republican and adversarial foreign propaganda (Biden Crime Family, Hunter’s Laptop, Sleepy Joe, millions of rapists and murderers crossing our borders, cost of eggs et al) spoke louder than Democrats who touted their achievements in whispers.
And who still seem to be whispering, and blaming each other, at a time when their loudest voices and some leadership are required.
I don’t know where you got the idea I was criticizing Joe Biden. I’m just telling you how one political party engineered the country’s public opinion aka propaganda of another political party.
Responding to your assertion that
“…eventually Democrats ignored the astronomically-expensive problem and the anticipated sacrifices and fights they’d make in Congress to get the funding. Republican engineering of things like this helped Democrats become the Do-Nothing Democrats they get called today”
I’m editing this to add…Biden stood out for not ignoring the difficulty, by forging ahead despite. And it bore results.
No, you weren’t disparaging Biden but my point was to dispel yours that Democrats in total became the party of Do-Nothings.
Clinton was trying to counter the Republican propaganda machine (which had many Reagan Democrats) and was a significant force in early 90’s thanks to Rush, Lee Atwater, the Nixon left overs, and their ilk. Especially the “think tanks” and economic greedy bastards given permission and rationale by the Powell memo. That zipper got in the way, and allowed a diversion better than chump could have dreamed up. That said, he was leaps and bounds better than any republican. Then or now.
Lee Atwater went on an apology tour before he died of terminal cancer. I thought he needed to do more than apologize to certain people abd looking back he didn’t do enough but one has to give him his effort and you would have thought someone would have thought to continue on.
I read that the apology tour was a joke, of sorts. I’m suspicious but only god knows
Sadly, Clinton tripped on his appendage. He also should never have put HRC in charge of anything Not only a bad look, she was incompetent -- Hilarycare.
I survived "Reinventing Government," a precursor to DOGE. Bullshit concepts laike "welfare as you knew it and NAFTA.
That said, GWB tried to do most of the stuff Trump is now doing. Tried to privatize everything. SSA trust funds. Congress came to the rescue. Many GWB appointees were duds.
To paraphrase Bob Prince, he had larceny in his heart, but lead in his feet.
I agree that he”tripped.” My bff quoted Linda Tripp to me ad nauseam. I never have thought that HRC was incompetent but her efforts sure gave Repubs ammunition. Way more competent and appropriate than Jared and Ivanka. Yes, I watched the W/Dickie fiasco with such disgust, and I watched Obama be vilified for trying to mitigate the mess. Sort of like Joe being vilified for successfully mitigating chump’s first disaster. But our media sure “Orwelled” every aspect of reporting on both these democratic administrations. W gave Mitch the “courage” to go for broke with his power. This time they have made sure that the duds have support from the “elected” traitors. Vlad is waiting in the wings. My take is that the P2025 cretins are in cahoots.
Hillary is a sound lawyer and politician but the medical insurance commission wrought for anyone who would have been put in charge. Who funded the George and Martha scare tactic adds?
Laws allowing Certain People access to public swimming pools, led to having the swimming pools drained and filled with concrete. Afterwards it was your Personal Responsibility to afford to build your own swimming pool or afford the fees for a private swim club.
Lisa, not all religions have strings attached. Catholic Charities serves 15million folks a year, regardless of their faith or no faith. You do not have to be Catholic to be helped and there is no proselytizing going on, no prayer service you have to attend, no commitment to Jesus you have to make.
Over 200,000 people volunteer. It is the largest non- governmental service agency in the country.
The passage of the "Big Bill" is deeply immoral and corrupt and will mean that groups like Catholic Charities will be challenged even more to provide help. They have been doing it since 1910!
Carol, I am glad that Catholic charities do not have strings attached. We pass o the way home from the Saturday Market a fundy church that does biweekly food boxes. I do hope they give freely without strings.
Religions will be happy to be depended on to serve those willing to join the sect. Back we go. Can the inquisition be far behind.
This lack of medical care for people, sounds like putting the old or sick on ice floes. (Watch out! Those who don't believe in global warming won't have too many ice floes to use.)
I just did a look up about who needed Medicaid and the SNAP program. FULL TIME WORKERS in some major businesses such as emergency, McDonalds, Amazon, don't make enough money to buy their groceries and get private medical insurance. It is not the undocumented workers although there is an emergency medical program for them which cost .4% of the Medicaid budget.
Yes, it does seem like a melting ice floe. They should at least legalize assisted suicide instead of burying people before they’re dead, just because they’re too poor to afford food, can’t afford healthcare coverage, and/or cannot work for whatever reason. What they’re doing is just slow murder, in my opinion.
That's a bit of an overreach in your statement about "religions." There are many faith communities who provide help for people in need no matter what they do or don't believe. Yes, there are some that do.
There *are* people who live the way Jesus taught...and no doubt people of other faiths...who work quietly and get things done. It's the people who have to be in front of a mic and make sure that the cross around their neck is showing while telling lies and doing exactly the opposite of what Jesus taught that you have to look out for.
Feel free to provide a list of who helps with and without strings (as far as known) Thank you
Those people (like Karoline) aren’t involved in religious charities.
You’re off base about the religious piece- many churches and religious NGO worked hand in hand with government programs to feed people, clothe, and settle immigrants. Participation in the church or churches has never been a requirement. In fact- a number of religious organization will have to close without their government grant. (Catholic social services Refugee resettlement already closed.)
Eat the rich. Behead the kings. Imprison the narcissists, because they believe they are kings.
You missed the letters “uc” twice Lisa otherwise you were spot on 🎯
Lisa, thank you for this excellent and detailed post of what this is really about. And I share your final sentence. My swear jar is full every day.
Thatsa grim view Lisa. I commend you for exposing it to us'ns who would read it and give it thought. And, WHY (???) would anyone, even you, write something like this? Welp.., because the callousness we are indeed witnessing, with our very eyes and ears is almost more than one can stand. However, as you alluded, when everything has gone...."god" will have a hand out (extended) for all those who feel helpless. Women will return to the kitchen to scrub floors, except for wealthy women who will have maids. Men will turn the cranks and wield the whip. Only Fans days will be numbered.
Her dim view is the reality that we must scream from the rooftops, but we still have sports, celebrities and religion to focus and divert. Fox still reaches the masses and churches still preach blasphemy. Jesus has been kicked to the curb. The WORD is rewritten, chump style. Word salad and colossal lies.
Very nice writing. Following.
It was a strange kind of stoicism being advocated by Senator Joni Ernst, being applied only to many of her own anxious constituents who were clearly more likely to die sooner as a result of this wretched Bill. She might as well have told them to 'suck it up, losers' because that's how her response and subsequent non-apology came across.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxQXTS5PUC4
Russell, I suggest that Ernst's view isn't stoicism, but nihilism. True, stoicism leaves no room for empathy, but it posits that one should live mechanically as a "life system," without the pleasure of embellishments. The stoic does only what is necessary and eschews that which is pleasurable.
Nihilism purports that nothing matters because we're all going to die eventually. Ernst actually said the second half of that thesis.
I was using the word in its use in general parlance rather than the school of philiosophy i.e. a calm acceptance of things that are out of one's control. Senator Ernst's 'look guys, worse things happen at sea' approach belongs to no school of philosophy that I know of. It was cynical, but not in the philosophical sense.
It's interesting now though that Trump is saying that he's not in favour of massive cuts to spending programmes, positioning himself nicely to lay the blame on Republican members of Congress for any public blowback if the Bill becomes law. Lawmakers now can't go to their constituents and tell them that they voted for Trump and this is his Bill.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5376449-trump-warns-republicans-cost-cutting-efforts/
Ugh! That f*ckin' guy, Donald! He has literally lived his entire life doing whatever the hell he wanted without regard for how his actions might affect others. Then, when the consequences blew up, he blamed whomever was nearby and denied having any connection.
"Mom, if you see a broken vase in the living room, Freddie did it."
"I never met the guy. I think he got coffee one time."
He's what we would call a bounder and he's made a practised art of evading responsibility for his actions.
An old-fashioned word that fits Donald to a T.
I don’t care- they’re the ones I’m concentrating on voting out of office next anyway. Let the blame fall on their heads
And rightly so, Kimberely. Only three Republican senators voted against the Bill but Vance cast the deciding vote. But they are all enablers in one way or another.
Gee, the repukes have gone from “death panels” (remember Sarah Palin) to “we’re all going to die; we’ll get it over it.” There are no words to describe the cruelty.
No words…
Sanity?
Criminal insanity coming from the party of " life" J L. It took 45 years of relentless planning and execution, since Regan started this history in reverse to get to this point. About half of that time we had Democrat administrations that did nothing to prevent what's happening now. We all will pay the consequences and it would be deadly for too many.
Ricardo, most of us are just as pissed off and frustrated as you are, but I disagree that Democrat administrations did nothing to prevent what's happening today. Clinton balanced the budget for several years and the stock market soared. Obama passed the ACA which helped millions of people afford health care. And Joe Biden oversaw over 70,000 much need infrastructure projects, provided additional health care for millions, and provided support for renewable energy projects. If the fucking Republicans hadn't bought the House and Senate back with big donor money and lies, otherwise so much more could have been accomplished.
EVERY REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT since Lincoln has ushered in at least one recession or depression and every Democrat President has had to bail out the economy. And look at what CA, NY, MD, MA and many other blue states are doing. I went to a town hall my state Senator put on last Saturday. The state legislature had to waste many days of their session trying to figure out how to cover their budget because of Trump's Fascist with holding of Federally approved funding.
Cleaning up the vomit that Republicans spew is a full time job and the Democrats are down on their hands and needs across the country cleaning up the messes the Republicans leave them.
It's more than Democratic leaders; it's Democrats who continue to support the greedy bastards that fund the sleazy, cruel Republicans. Bezos just threw a wedding for himself that cost somewhere around $60,000,000,000 and it is reported that he paid no taxes last year. Yet every Democrat will happily log on to Amazon when they want something. IF all those Democrats stayed off Amazon for a month.... If all of them never visited a Musk showroom and dropped their X accounts... If all of them discontinued their Facebook accounts and Google accounts. The Dems are bleeding from thousands of self-inflicted wounds.
I do wish I'd see some Democratic leaders in the streets in the demonstrations and rallies. Where are the Schumers and Jeffries??
We need mass boycotts and work stoppage to happen to make the GOP listen to WE THE PEOPLE!
EXACTLY.
For the last week, I've been posting (okay--sometimes ranting) that we need a BOYCOTT WEEKEND equivalent to the NO KINGS protests. The visuals of the protests went viral. We need visuals of empty parking lots at the big box stores, deserted malls, and hundreds upon hundreds of photos of workers standing idle at their registers and fast food grills, etc.
Support the small businesses before or after. Ultimately, will it impact the big guys bottom line? Probably not, but as the saying goes, a photo is worth a thousand words.
Robin, you've seen it! "We the People" are being hauled off.., detained.., given a criminal record. And, if you're not being "hauled off".., it's because "We the People" are choosing to remain indoors and watch the tube as others are. Certainly , I would like our streets and cities to be safe places AND unruly behavior kept in check. But, what we have taking place today represents an entirely ulterior-motive. Somehow, peace-ably we've got to recognize it and make the corrections. That's about as peaceful as I can express it.
AMEN!!!
This is so tiresome, the Rs destroy our system of government and way of life, and people like you blame the Ds. Should there be boycotts and direct action? Yes, but I refuse to read and accept junk like this to say we are at fault.
Perhaps, you can show us another way to discourage the Republicans and their financial backers. I'm ready when you are.
They Knew - Sarah Kenzdior.
$50 million for the Bezos wedding.
Bezo is a great example of one whos riches have blinded themselves to reality. Too bad his boat didn't sink & get his 'wife's' expensive dress ruined...
I ditched all of the above. Sort of like IBM doing business with nazis
hahahhaaa.., Good Question Michael. Those guys you mentioned don't want to get arrested for "impeding progress" were they to take part in some demonstration where ICE shows up.
Yes Gary….VOMIT is exactly the word I’ve been using for years to describe republicans and the way they treat others.
To be fair, Clinton with Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin as Secretaries of Treasury, de-regulated the finance sector and thus Wall Street. Both Summers and Rubin are Chicago School of Economics style neoliberalists. This played out rather badly in 2008 and 2009. Reich can illuminate this more fully,
Thank you. And this is the heart of the problem - even during this republican led abomination, we have the Ricardos of the world with the "both sides" while polishing their purity progressive medals This cruel bill has no rival on the Democratic side. And by the way, "we" voted this in. Either consciously or by indifference. Take some accountability.
Thank you Gary for explaining the difference between what Democratic and Republican administrations focus on. It is now up to us to choice what we want.
Thanks, Gary.
This needs to be actually covered by our media. But they won’t. They would call it “partisan” rather than acknowledge it as truth.
I don't deny democrat administrations did implemented great policies on behalf of we the people. Every one of them. But neglected the no so too underground actions that culminated with Proyect 2025 being implemented. In any case your comment is well taken GJ.
Beautifully stated.
OK, here we go again. The old "Circular Firing Squad". I can agree that Democratic leaders are far from perfect. I will wait patiently while someone here who is saying "Democrats are complicit" comes up with the perfect political party and the perfect person. Waiting...still waiting.
Gary's response says what's in my heart. And here is what is in my head:
Blaming Democrats now for the problems we face is pure self destructive bullshit. It's whimpering and whining instead of joining the fight against Fascism. It is utter foolishness. It aids and abets the enemy.
I don't desagree with you Bill but just to be very brief here, let me highlight just one point. Had trump be in jail as he should, the closure of the circle started with Regan, won't be happening.
Agreed. Totally. My personal favorite retroactive rabbit hole is as follows:
Biden was in many ways, one of our greatest presidents. But, IMO, the third biggest mistake he made was nominating Garland to be AG. Trump should have been arrested and charged with sedition by the end of January 2021. Locked up, no bail, flight risk. Evidence? Seriously? It was on TV. Roll the tape.
Number two was allowing Thomas to become a Justice of the Supreme Court. Of course, once his corruption was revealed, he could have called for his impeachment...but there I go...down the hole...
Number big Biden mistake? Running for re-election. All that being said, I still love the guy and what he accomplished in the face of very great opposition.
Back to my point. We are a messy argumentative political party. Like a family that screams at each other as they say "I love you". Like in the series called "The Bear".
But we are in agreement on a lot of stuff like the reality of a Climate Catastrophe and the horrible, murderous inequity of income and assets. Sen Slotkin is joining Sen Murphy in the big tent approach. Mamdani ran on "affordability"!
Today's Edition by Hubbell speaks to my point. Thanks for engaging, Ricardo.
My agreement with you Bill is greater than Bezos's wedding 😄
With you on everything, Bill. Except I would skip Biden's vote to confirm Thomas as a Suprette. He would've been confirmed with or without Biden's vote, so that's a moot point. Likewise, calling for Thomas' impeachment would have been the right thing to say, but with MAGA House and Senate, he might has well have been screaming into the abyss. Maybe that's the rabbit hole you mentioned.
Great points all Bill. We should try to avoid absolute language and hints of conspiracy theories that turn people away. Even the greatest of us make mistakes, as you just pointed out.
Sorry? Democrats are responsible for trump’s crimes going unpunished? Bill is right; democrats are oh-so-willing to criticize their own party. But in what way does that contribute to stopping this madness? Do republicans, who SHOULD be loudly and ferociously criticizing their own party, spend hours nitpicking the historical failures of the Bushes, Reagan, Trump? Are we afraid of becoming our own cult, blindly believing and saluting our leadership? We demonstrate our own independence by criticizing Harris for her loss rather than pressuring for more investigation of “anomalies” in the election?
I don’t excuse myself. I grew up with so much faith in democracy and democratically elected leaders that today’s corruption and cruelty have caused me to fall into despair. In my despair, it’s hard not to believe the worst of politicians and I tend to look for evidence that confirms it - like a religious fanatic whose faith has been shattered and now is just as fanatically atheistic. I can barely get up in the morning if I can’t focus on those heroes who still believe in kindness, generosity and democracy.
Marge, in what way democrats attitude and always by the book proper manners are responsible for trump not being in jail? Open your eyes please. That's just one of the many failures. We shouldn't have to be in this situation, about to lose our democracy, the envy of the civilized world and still deny that we are also responsible for not acting in whichever way possible. Consequences will be tragic.
Thank you, Bill. That's exactly what I was thinking. It had to be said!
Couldn't agree more. Self-indulgent pitter-patter and irrelevant nonsense.
It's been said Republicans used to be the party of 'fall in line' while Democrats were the party of 'fall in love.' Since that time, the Republican 'line' echoes with goose-steps, while Democrats have become obsessed with drafting their new advertisement for the perfect nanny....
"She must be kind and must be witty, very sweet and fairly pretty,
Take us on outings, brings us treats, play games, bring sweet (no warts).
Never be cross or cruel, and never give us castor oil or gruel....
Hurry nanny do! Jane and Michael Banks."
Mary Poppins?
Bill Alstrom, CAPITAL LETTERS PLEASE!
Ricardo, I think the timeline extends longer than 45 years. It began about 75 years ago, when the Democratic and Republican parties swapped platforms. Prior to that, the Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln, operated on the premise that everyone is created equal. The Republican Party was formed 100 years earlier as pushback against the beliefs engendered by the "Founding Fathers" that only white men were capable of being in charge. But in the 1950s, the GOP was overcome with lust for power and devised the "Southern Strategy" to exploit the racism that continued to seethe in the Southern states, vanquished in the Civil War. Ever since, that lust for power has animated the GOP, abetted by the religious right that fear they are losing control over U.S. culture.
As the national complexion has gradually darkened over the decades, and the GOP ethos has become less popular, Republican legislators have exploited the legislative devices originally intended to prevent the U.S. from becoming an autocracy that enabled the minority to still have some say, propelling themselves into a minority with unchecked power.
It is untrue that Democrats "did nothing." When in the majority, Democrats did what they could to undo some of the damage done by the GOP, but were hampered by the GOP minority exploiting the tools previously mentioned. Likewise, Democrats have tried to slow the roll of Republicans toward racist, religious fascism. But rules in both houses prevent the Democrats from being very effective.
You might be right Dale but what really matters it's happening now,when the circle that started 75 years ago or 45 years ago is closing up. And if people think that everything will be back to normal after the midterm election, maybe they should be questioning if they are going to risks it all in one bet. My gut feeling is that the election will be rigged or canceled under state of emergency, sedition, martial law or the insurrection act. I hope I'm wrong. Thanks for your comment Dale.
Your concern is legitimate, and I share it.
A trait of dementia is a lack of filter. Donald has blurted out a couple statements that should concern everyone.
"Vote for me this one time, and you'll never have to vote again."
"Elon Musk knows those computers better than anybody … those vote counting computers. And we ended up winning Pennsylvania, like, in a landslide."
And someone asked tRump today if was thinking about 'deporting Muskox...
Agree, Robert. When the underlying philosophy of a governing body is…”we are all in this together, there is enough to go around.”, then policies improve infrastructure, health care, renewable energy methods, education, etc. Alignment of governance is in order with We the People.
No so with Project 2025 and Trump2 admin. They do not honor We the People, only “Some of the Sum”. Cull the population. Strip the care, strip the resources, strip the good… in favor of more for less.
I believe this cannot last. The highest power of Light and Love does not have an opposite. It is why evil is always temporary. The intent of the current administration will die trying.
Salud!
🗽💜
Salud!
That’s why Biden is gone.
Shushie.
Call it a functioning government.
No
I feel this deeply. I want to live in a country where we care for one another, where policy reflects compassion and shared responsibility. Whether we call it justice, morality, or simply being human, it’s the kind of world I am committed to building.
I agree. We need to get down to more fundamental language and a morality that embraces all.
Can I ask Bill Clinton why he did the same thing having to do with Medicaid.
Robert, we can call it socialism, or humanism, morality or justice, but let's call it what it is: Pragmatic Capitalism. Grover Norquist wants a government that provides for the accumulation of vast amounts of wealth by the few (Oligarchy) while providing for police to keep the peace. Nothing more.
By contrast, Frances Perkins, the "mother" of Social Security, believed this: "The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to facilitate the means by which all the people under its jurisdiction can access the best possible life." There can be no separation between government and the economy. Were it not for 340 million Americans, Bezos, Musk and Zuckerberg would not be billionaires. All of us are entitled to health care, housing, an education, food, water, security, employment and more.
Novel? Not at all. Matthew 25: 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
There is an open pathway to Hell, lots will be taking that route- they just don't know it yet...
Richard ….Grover whoooooo? He’s been dead for a long time in political terms. Why are still living in your history book.. try living in what the Scottish call “the now” and I’m sorry for being here but I heard Heather’s message and I just felt compelled to chime in…. and I understand it was a completely disastrous week for liberals this week for a dozen reasons upon Which I will elaborate once the Big beautiful Bill bill passes or fails. Although Patty Murray did, in fact try to change the name which I got a kick out of.
Rick, I'm an atheist, believing virtually nothing in the Old Testament and the New Testament, though I quote from them on occasion. In a way I do wish that some of it was grounded in fact. It would give me great psychic satisfaction knowing that virtually every single MAGAT and every Republican politician will fry, baby, fry. That may be unfair in that some MAGATS may simply be too stupid to grasp the subtle differences, i.e., lack of critical thinking skills.
Well, it ain’t fryin yet and ain’t going to fry for at least 3 1/2 years although the last administration is NOT ONLY FRIED….past tense but it’s BURNT TOAST. so much for your predictions. Where was the critical thinking the last four years when people couldn’t afford to eat because prices were up 20% interest rate of triple mortgage rates, triple cost of gasoline doubled. Great critical, thinking. And please don’t waste your time defending it. It’s useless it’s factual. It’s in the books and it’s done now.
Rick, now I know - your sources of information are Fox, OAN and/or Newsmax. How do I know? Because the American economy was" the envy of the world" while our inflation rate was among the lowest in the world. [Wall Street Journal 4-12-2024 and The Economist, 10-19-2024.] Sadly, ignorance was and is an element in Trump's support. What you just wrote above is, to put it in the vernacular, bullshit.
And you are going to die before us bc we deserve everything and you deserve nothing.
Exactly, Robert! Our government was founded to protect and serve--not harm--us. It's wrong for it to harm us. I totally agree that good people look out for and help each other. Let's spread the message that "Americans help each other!" and "Harming America and Americans is unpatriotic!" These rallying cries could unify and galvanize Americans across ideologies in diverse settings!!
Call it Community. We are the party that cares, the party that governs for all the people, every single one.
Reminds me of the debate in which Ron Paul took part in the republican debate of 2008 or ‘12 (can’t quite remember). He asked rhetorically:”do we all let these people die?”(it was something of that order). And the crowd chuckled and essentially said yes. This sick attitude that republicans have goes way back. As I’ve always said on these posts: “with republicans, it’s always been about the money!”
Oh noes! Don't call it socialism! Run away! Hair on fire!
One of my doctors, who I otherwise respect, told me that voting for Harris was voting for socialism. This was in reaction to the Harris stickers on my walker.
She is now astonished that the short-fingered vulgarian is doing the things he's doing. Because she is my health care provider, I have refrained from saying, "But at least he's not a 'socialist.'" Also, she did say, "You were probably right."
Whewww!! Robert, I wish we could stop applying names/words ending with 'ists' and 'isms' to all this. To have any effect the party/person being spoken to needs to know what the heck "it" packs. I'm afraid the effect is lost, or the word is meaningless, or worse. Take 'socialism' for example. Rhymes with communism - BZZZZTTTTT! It goes on to say that if you're a "socialist" you must automatically be a communist.., etc etc. And, (just about) everyone would give "communist" a black flag. Use the word (socialist/socialism).., and you lose! Quit using it (Bernie..! AOC..! ). Then, we move on to the "ists". Fascists.., narcissists, even economists. Forgive me but, I don't think the average person on the street know what the heck is being referred to. Maybe. If they were to guess.., maybe. So, apply the KISS method - Keep It Simple Stupid. Refer to him or her as 'a POS' and elaborate from there and move on. Sen Lisa Murkowski (AK)seems to have been hooked by the budget bill gig-line. POS. Kiss.
I have no problem calling Trump a fucking asshole and did in a recent comment elsewhere. But insults are a form of verbal combat. In this case I was looking for language of engagement, inclusion and aspiration. All are good I think.
Well Robert, I have to commend you. You are the perfect example of liberals today you have only one agenda and that is hate Trump….. what we have right now is the finest example of democracy we’ve had in 50 years. By changing the channel
Then they market it as the ‘Nanny State’ because they get to market fear, hate, and misinformation! We have to teach, explain, share, accept reality, no created facts the fit our FAUX world! No RFuckingK! Fairy tails for the masses, and we have to actually do thing!
As Bill Clinton pointed out, of the 51,000,000 jobs created Dems created 50,000,000! This is a fact! Of the major engineering products, medical research, has been supported by the Federal and state governments…yes our taxes invested wisely for the benefit of all!
We invest, they steal, we think, they have brain farts…really!
Biden was a great presidents with an even better team! We are team players, not god-lets…
Who is more like Jesus? Donny or Joe!? Or Jill and Melania?
And Mitch McConnell's "They'll get over it" re the medicaid cuts. Evil and cruel
Sarah Kendzior in her book “They Knew” best commemorates last night’s Senate activity.
Speaking of the criminal in the White House: “He covered his big crimes with smaller crimes, and covered his smaller crimes with scandals, and in the process attempted to destroy the very notion of truth.”
The Republicans have completed his attempts. They’ve done that for the U.S. oligarchy confident Americans no longer have any truth. Remember, truth is first of all personal. And the hurts to come from opening the way for full-bore oligarchy will be massive, more corrupt, more totally ongoing criminal.
Worst, bereft now so from truth as Sarah Kendzior concludes, we can never more question any of our overlords, any more than in all the years of all the schools and all their testing could anyone ever ask any testers anything.
Hello Phil.... In this MegaBill there is No $$$ for the Unhoused, No $$$ for Sick People, and No $$$ Hungry Children... However there is over $1,500,000,000 for DJT's 'Free' Golden 747 from Qatar, and Billions of $$$ for Bombs for Netanyahu...
The corruption and cruelty of this person and this regime is overwhelming, obscene and frankly disgusting. How is it that so many Americans will follow these criminals off a fricking cliff while screaming “we owned the libs”? It really boggles my mind and keeps me awake at night.
And that’s really the root of the issue, the quest to elect a government that will “own the libs” for them, because frustratingly they aren’t smart enough to understand that their plight in life is actually the fault of the people they vote for
It’s simple: it’s a king’s bill. Bleed the common people dry to fill your coffers for your wars and your palaces and your lavish parties - and at the same time, keep those people poor, hungry and miserable so they stay obedient and don’t attempt any revolts.
Game of Thrones. Right this moment I feel safe. Right now, in my little cozy home, I haven’t felt the pinch. I’m a white citizen born to white citizens. I’m educated. But deep in my heart I know what’s heading our way. The data doesn’t show it yet—all those people who lost jobs because of elon’s slash and burn, all those crops unpicked, all those hurricane roofs that won’t be repaired when the storms come, all those people sick and unable to get tested or cared for, all those elders without nursing home or in-home care, all those women without reproductive care, including during difficult pregnancies, all those precious public lands sold off for profit—all of it paid for by US, American citizens, while the rapists get huge tax cuts. We are supposed to pay for our abuse at their hands. It hurts. I weep. I worry about my kids and grandkids. But I put one foot in front of the other and keep trudging forward.
A lot of painful truth there and these are things that we must face because we haven’t hit bottom yet. We have been running backwards rapidly for a while now and perhaps it’s no surprise that now we are falling. But I have hope that we will hit bottom soon. I’m not a King of Thrones fan so perhaps I didn’t get your meaning on that. You say trudge on and I say climb up from the depths. Not all of the hope of humanity is lost. You have children and grandchildren and so do I. They are our last best hope.
All honest observations . Very sad situation because it feels like we’re boxed in. Dare to protest at your own risk. Now, even peaceful protest can provoke an opportunity to send in the National Guard and Marines.
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing."
Bob Dylan
Thank You Dutch Mike... It is the Corrupted, Cowardly, GOPs Homage to a Crazed Orange Emperor... Notice How The GOP Is Being Purged Of Its Most Moderate Members?...
Yep... Fascism at it's finest :/
That's not what the disobedient French poor did in 1790.
We could learn a few things from the French peasants...
Not just the peasants. It was the citizens who stormed the royal palace in the heart of Paris.
And French citizens continue to protest in large numbers when needed. Compared to Europeans, we are like sheep.
No, but it's definitely what the ultrarich tech bros like Musk and Thiel WANT you to do. You are resources for their great plans, remember? You NPC...
Now that was civic action! Viva la France.
I don't think the "don't attempt any revolts" will hold., although it must until the 2026 elections.
2026 elections??? What's Plan B?
Hit the streets.
"Hit the Streets" ...which needs to be Plan A!
support our courts who are holding the line. Now. Before too many voting rights are stripped away. Protest, and support the lawyers doing the dirty work for us.
There is no plan B, as you ask. If there is one, I don't know it. But we must do what we can to make sure our elections in 2026 change Congress and gets rid of the trump suck-ups.
And all the King's men will have no servants- they are all dead!
Devastating, Apache. We're all so screwed.
I'm glad to see -- relieved -- Heather's assiduousness in documenting the good, valiant attempts by our best Dems to specify, call out, amend the inhumanity, the obvious rank corruption. They're putting Republicans on the record.
Q is, can Dems keep it up when they're also so long proven to possess so few refs to arts or humanities that could keep the passion humanly alight?
Thank You Phil... Since You Are In Japan... Maybe We can borrow from Akido... We can teach our Children Well at Home after 'School'... Teach Them The Why Of Things... Instill a Thirst For Knowledge, and Positive Values... If this Bill passes, and it probably will, Weaponize its Deleterious Effects, and have the Dems run on that... If they cannot do it... Get New Dems...
You have a new Dem in New York City stop complaining. Lol
Hello Rick... As The Old Sensei Said, We'll See...
Despite your leanings, far too far to the left, at least you have the temerity to be patient and wait and see However , when you see my post. When I come back after this bill is passed or not passed there is so many accomplishments by this administration, which decries And up ends all the negativity that was said about everything Trump was going to do the economy the stock market inflation, the end of democracy, the existential threat to America. This past week was a nuclear explosion to the left and I will delineate that in several posts.
And I know you’ll love this comment. There is a lot of comment on the right that you don’t hear they’re not only talking about Nobel peace prize for the three major accomplishments around the world. And they are no longer talking about Mount Rushmore and removing Roosevelt are adding Trump they’re talking about giving Trump is own mt. Rushmore Mountain.
But Wilsie is correct. I believe the economy will struggle for 4 to 6 months unless interest rates are lowered which they should be. As every time there are major changes to anything there is a reaclimation period.
And when people start getting money in their pockets that they didn’t have before and after pay less taxes, and maybe even increase their income by anywhere from six to $10,000, I believe that will calm down.
Put Apache you are correct. We will have to see, but I just love when the Democrats in Congress and Washington have been talking about the the Armageddon of America ever since November 5 and everything that’s happened refutes that so far.
There’s one thing left , no one mentions . Stopping it. Stopping them. Stop the taxes from coming in. Stop working.
It’s been hinted about . A National-across-the-country-non-stop-protest. It can be done in shifts or consecutively day after day .It’s this or (as is stated,spelled out , or in short span after passage …what happens ) slowly letting people die. Bring to the table the maximum requirements…EVERY SINGLE ONE WHO VOTES THIS INTO LAW …GONE…OUT..INCLUDING THE WHOLE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION ..IE ..ANYONE WHO VOTES FOR THIS BILL sans the ones who voted NO!
It will be Primaried alright..by.the.people.and.for.the.people.
Not any ‘deals’. The whole kit and caboodle..out and forever banished . The Red States will be the first to start crying..including my own. The timing is at that point when it is clearly falling apart…per prediction.
Is it the ‘shadow docket’ I’m going to ask to step up to plate? ( I’ve never understood what this was but…)
Democrats can bring about the accountability that hasn’t happened, impeachments of grand scale ( again) all those who voted for.
Can’t be done? We have to wait for 2026? It would be Marshall Law?
Little pigs , little pigs, I’ll blow your WH house down…
It won’t be FOX talking…
Just kidding?
I've been calling for a national weekend of BOYCOTTING all shopping. 100% NO SHOPPING AT ALL.
TY , Miselle . Can the cigarette smokers ( or whoever..) go w/o for a weekend? Plan ahead..please? Their pocketbook is the Achilles heal ..pointedly..thanks again Miselle. This IS the fight.
Can. We.DO IT?
What exactly are YOU willing to do?
I’m in!
I'm NOT 'loading up'! I will eat what is in the cupboard, frig, freezer. Have coffee beans here. I have plenty of clothes, shoes & socks. So, everyone really needs to ask themselves "Is this item a necessity?" Will my family suffer without it? And yes- smokers could use this time to reduce or QUIT smoking- would help us all.
The problem that you have with your concept of democracy….democracy is currently what we have in democracy is currently what’s working right now just as it was during Obama’s first term. Only difference is you don’t agree with the policies. Kamala Harris voted 33 times to break a tie in the Senate ….. twice for budget reconciliation bills, so what’s the difference please tell me?
Phil - I don’t know if there are enough of us with the will to unite in the common cause of saving our country and rebuilding a safe and humane and inclusive society. Look around at all the havoc that has been set in motion since January 21, 2025.There are many sadistic people having too much fun building Alligator Alleys to entrap people who have been our neighbors and important cogs in the wheels turning our economy.
Our national debt could reach a point where the cost of interest outstrips our ability to pay it. Then the profiteers may realize that it is their responsibility to open their vaults and pay a share of their profits to share in our national responsibilities to keep society rolling rather than lurching along.
I can go on but maybe others want to add to the list.
Y’all remember when Trump visited a few African countries and called them shitholes? Well, he has us on the fast track to becoming one of them! He even learned a few tricky ways to skim off money from even the poor and use it to further his self-enrichment. Really!? Are there any other national leaders hawking baubles for sale? He’s an embarrassment and when even his motley crew in congress reach their limits it will be on them to launch their impeachment of him.
We need to be brave!
Trump in a discussion of limiting immigration from countries with Temporary Protected Status for their refugees reportedly called them "shithole countries". It was widely implied in the press to be anti-black racism by saying "Trump said "why do we want people from shithole countries" and the countries included Haiti and several countries from Africa."
However, the majority of African TPS countries at the time weren't black majority countries. TPS countries are not chosen for poverty, they are chosen for civil war or natural disaster reasons. The three African TPS countries at the time were Sudan (predominantly Arab), South Sudan (predominantly black) and Somalia (predominantly ethnic Somali, which is a Cushitic ethnic group, North African if we're broad brush painting).
So the countries Trump called shithole would not be "black" countries but rather ones affected by civil disruption or natural disaster. El Salvador and maybe one or two other Central American countries were also among the countries at the time due to disruption there.
Personally, I think we need to have people from shithole countries because that's what the point of accepting refugees is - they are suddenly living in an untenable situation and we can help them.
Then tell Congress it’s not up to Trump
Do you mean "Tell Congress, because it's not up to Trump" or "Tell Congress that it's not up to Trump"
I get your point, but the amount to be spent on medicaid and on SNAP is going to be reduced by the bill, but not eliminated. So there will be $$$ for those programs. I wonder what the rate of increase in dollars spent on medicaid has been over the last 10 years.
Not enough to keep children alive or healthy. If government would pass a decent minimum wage law there wouldn’t be as many citizens needing assistance. Also making mega-corporations and their Board of Directors provide decent healthcare for all their employees would reduce the need for government provided assistance in that area. The wealthy don’t need tax breaks they need to pay what they should for the privilege of living in America where they can pursue wealth beyond measure.
And rent out Venice for their second wedding and associated glittering parties full of people who are famous for being famous, where women wear tight corsets on the lower part of their bodies and very little at all anywhere else.
Anne-Louise, sister of my heart! I posted about this above.
It still amazes me that basically, the entire BILLIONS upon BILLIONS of Kardashian family wealth came about because of one of them laying on her back. Astounding.
Doesn't matter how much money she got, she's still a...
It's NOT pretty money they have. Bunch of egomaniacs!
Barbie dolls? The cost of one outfit could feed a village! Hope Venice toughens up & refuses to allow the takeover by the likes of Bezo!
And just as a wake up, call for you nobody on the right gives a shit about the celebrities anymore either nobody pays attention.
Yes, pay the same percentage as I do as a lower class middle American!
By the government, you’re talking about Congress, right? By the way, you know that states are allowed to have their own minimum wage requirements. Did you know that? one of the reasons California suffering sopoorly business wise and people are fleeing in droves. ?
Try running a business on three or 4% profit and then increase wages by 10%. The math just doesn’t work. And here’s why, because what happens is the businesses have to raise prices to pay for the additional payroll what’s the increase in payroll taxes and the matching Social Security fund? and then their products become less affordable for the very people that got the increase.
I know most of that and by most measures California has a thriving economy even with high minimum wages.
Rick seems to be just the residential bot :) - we've all learned to ignore him.
Well, how hypocritical are you? check out what their debt is and 185,000 homeless people in California right now. And the flight from California right now. And they spent over $20 billion in the last four years on illegal immigrants to feed them clothed them and house them and give them free medical care while 185,000 people sleep on the streets
Drugs and crime the worst in San Francisco which used to be beautiful is now an arm pit with needles everywhere… it has a thriving economy because it has 39 million people. That’s the only reason that they put out the numbers that they have and major companies are leaving.
Lived in California for 30 years and got the hell out of there as hundreds of thousands of people are now doing now. In 2022 alone 1 million people left the state.
It won’t be that there will be no money, but being able to get assistance will become harder and more burdensome for all. And that, the changes in rules, regulations, deadlines, documentation, etc. is the BIG LIE the republicans are covering up when they tell the American people there will be no cuts to health and food assistance. Each of the eight billionaires could individually fund, for a decade, school lunch programs, rural health clinics, etc. and they would never miss a penny. But no…Mr, bezos spends 20 mil on an obscene wedding, and lounges on a 500 mil yacht in another country. Not even supporting the U.S. economy. Oh, I forgot…all the hospitality workers are being deported! Yes, he so desperately needs a tax break so he can continue accumulating wealth at the expense of anyone who labors for him. There will be a reckoning for all who are like him.
Bezos spent $50MM on that obscene wedding in Venice
And you know what his beautiful first wife has been doing to pass the time since she divorced him for his infidelity? She's a very busy professional philanthropist.
Not to mention the cost of prescription drugs…Why in the hell did they vote not to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices???? There is some fraud and abuse right there. Look, I have no problem with rooting out waste-lord knows our government has a lot of that-but not destroy it all-with absolutely no plan at all to actually fix anything. It’s a fact that the economy does way better under Democratic presidents than R’s. The current regime—-well—-we need a regime change.
When states can't find the dollars to replace the federal share the remaining ingredients dollars can't be stretched for more people. The fixed costs are facilities, staff, and operating costs to provide care to both privately insured and Medicaid/Medicare patients. Medicaid is the essential source of keeping medical facilities open and available to everyone in rural communities and inner cities. Rationing will result along with rapidly rising costs for people who can afford more expensive medical services and those on fixed incomes, even with private or supplemental insurance will be forced out of service right after the former Medicaid folks. The 1600000 number probably underestimates the real number of people with reduced or soon limited coverage.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/245348/total-medicaid-expenditure-since-1966/
Well for illegals, it’s been huge. This is not much different than my Bill Clinton try to do including work requirements to obtain Medicaid
George Monbiot and Peter Hutchinson capture what is going on perfectly too, in their book, "Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism." What we have is a plutocracy, that is a country that is governed by and for the very wealthy.
Grand theft under our noses.
I wonder, Linda, if they cover the academy, either K-12 or "higher."
I'll be in the U.S. in October, so can check for a copy -- sounds perfect. But if they ignore what the schools have been doing, or not doing . . ..
Phil, they discuss the funding of University economic programs to teach neoliberalism, and how insidious it has become. There is also a discussion of the funding of foundations to "study" it and tell us how this is real, and spread the work, including the Heritage Foundation, drafter of the infamous Project 2025 document.
I am rereading it with my book club, and will see what he says about K-12. I don't remember that off hand.
I remember that in real time, Linda.
All across America biz ed programs just took off. More than doubled all enrollments in all fields of health studies (including medical schools and nursing programs).
And as ALEC got states to cut funding of higher ed, the banks moved in to generate the U.S.'s highest debt burdens to any group ever -- student loan loads much bigger than all housing debt combined. But then, too, as money kept flowing only to the top, nobody built any housing for middle classes or working classes anymore. Luxury housing massively growing at one end, and trailer units at the other.
Exactly Phil. I think you would really find the book a clarifying discussion of the things you have observed.
Truth and Justice are inseparable!
Exactly.
True and they are not permanent either if not fought for and demanded.
Sarah is on the mark too.
Absolutely, Ransom.
Her most recent book (this year), "The Last American Road Trip" combines her great love of America with her abhorrence of the criminal class that has taken over.
The main dynamics of her scintillating wit and wide appetites come from coverage of the many trips she's made with her family to enjoy America's vast abundance and variety of national parks. She also loves to stop on the highways and byways for whatever's locally most weird: "the biggest xxx in the world" over and over.
But the reminders are constant, too, of the damages the rich have been doing -- predations which for all her positive energy she keeps questioning, too.
I just ordered her book, thanks again for the recommendation Phil.
“Remember, truth is first of all personal.” - I beg to differ on that point. Truth is the objective facts. When the truth is hidden, distorted, lied about, and manipulated it becomes personal. How one reacts to truth is personal. The truth exists and it is up to us to find and spread it.
Then talk to your senator from California, Connecticut, and Maine and Colorado
AND Especially from New York… Who stood up and stretch the truth, as far as it could be stretched . Ask them for the bare truth…
The remaining power the Democrats have and that they are banking on, confident that it’s a foregone conclusion, is demolishing the Fascist party in the mid-terms. But one of the boasting points from mango hitler is that there won’t be any more elections. So our key strategy now is to anticipate what their plan is to dismantle voting rights even further and tune up their suppression plans and fraud strategy. They learned how successful they can be hacking the system and manipulating the process by stealing this election. Musk may not be on board next time since he seems to have killed off any investigations or charges against him already. No matter your take on the election fraud, ignoring the possibility will be at our peril. After all, the second thing you can count on from mango is, after lying, that he will cheat.
That doesn't even seem to be the worst of this bill - I understand that
- he can delay or cancel elections legally
- he can ignore SCOTUS rulings for a year or more
- he can fire government workers for political disloyalty
- Judges can't enforce their own orders
- Protests can be tracked and criminalised
Am I wrong here or are you full on track for authoritarianism?
I feel like we're more than on track. It feels like one foot in the door already.
The*very* 'calm-minded' lefties of
January are finally making contact with the "oh right we're fucked" turnstile.
I can’t say unequivocally you are wrong, but on elections, at least, you are-he cannot LEGALLY cancel elections. it’s worth reading smart commentators on this subject (Jay Kuo’s article Linda cited above and Heather’s chats).
You think he'll care? He has changed legislation so that he's no longer guilty - don't stop being a criminal, just declare it as not a crime, Adolf Hitler and other dictator's style.
He hasn't cared so far - he didn't give a shit about being impeached because he knows his mob is going to bail him out and SCOTUS gave him carde blanche.
I don't think many Americans realise how incredibly deep in trouble you are.
Certainly this group here does.
The key word being legally. A concept foreign to the man.
You say to him "It's illegal" and he answers "What's your point?"
No, you are not wrong!
Very simply say ben you’re wrong.. you asked the question I answered.
I am still calling Senators and it is getting close to midnight here in CA. I will continue to call in particular Republicans. If you are up or if you read this on Tuesday. Call your Senator. When it goes to the House call your Representative. You can call other Senators and Representatives. I have and will continue to do so until we get good legislation.
BTW just dial 1-202-224-3121… ask for whomever you wish to state you opinion…. flood people FLOOD the lines (the switchboard transfers your call)
Thank you for the heads up. I just called and left a message for Lisa Murkowsky imploring her to look out for the lives of all Alaskans and vote NO.
Linda another action that is recommended is writing up amendments that Democrats can use to slow down the bill. Remember Trump wants it done by July 3, so he can continue to fund his ICE program. He will be out of money by then. Here is the link to post your suggested amendments too.
https://act.indivisible.org/letter/amendment-reconciliation-bill/
The U.S.Senate is still in session at 3 AM Eastern Midnight Pacific. The session was roiled by a tax attack on renewable energy including wind & solar driven energy systems.
Update: Monday, 3 Eastern, Post-BBB Passage: Senator Murkowski got Alaska relieved from the hostile renewable entry tax as part of the sale of her "YES" vote.
Bryan, It is morning here in Germany, so I forget that it is still in the night there. Jay Kuo does a nice discussion of the BBB and its impacts here.
https://open.substack.com/pub/statuskuo/p/reverse-robin-hood?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
I am working on several projects right now to get my life together and my mom's demented life better supported, and will try to squeeze in some amendment suggestions too.
My heart goes out to you and your mom. So many of us have similar loving responsibilities.
Thanks Emily.
Sell Mount Rushmore to the Sioux Nation. 200 yr low interest financing.
How about return it for free, since it was stolen?
Fine by me. But remember, we would have to appeal to the base instincts of those who support this bill
you live in Germany and that’s your remark? Wow.
🎶 The World is burning. The time has Come ... to say fair's fair - let's give it back! 🎶
Brian, you’re slightly off here and I’m sorry I’m here because I was waiting for the passage of the bill by both parties were the failure of the bill by both parties but I see your remark and I would like to offer my difference of opinion
The world is not burning it has been illuminated. And once the bill is passed I will delineate specifically what I’m referring to.
Don’t worry about Mount Rushmore. Trump will not replace Roosevelt or I will not be added to Mount Rushmore so not to worry
He’ll have his own mountain. Uh oh
Thank you Linda . I just woke up out here the west coast of North America" ... squeeze in some amendment suggestions too"? That caught my waking eyes ... commenters of the continents unite!
thanks, that was fun
Tell them what's happening to their constituents, and ask them if they care.
The Big Bastardized sickeningly cruel indecent Bill makes me feel like I’m in the back seat of a bus that just went over a cliff. The U.S. now feels older and colder than it did in the 50’s. What do we do now? Kill the Bill. We fight for humanity, science, a survivable climate, reasonable controls on AI, U.S. democracy, truth, justice, and the American Dream. We must never surrender. My cynicism wants to eat my skepticism, but that’s exactly what the fools on the hill want us to cave in to. I know that we can dig our way out of this hole. Question power. Question authority. Eat the rich.
Powerful words, "My cynicism wants to eat my skepticism." It's now a new pep talk to self (don't let your cynicism eat your skepticism).
Nice turn of phrase. I love it!
The Republican Party has been fighting FDR’s New Deal for almost a century and this draconian bill before Congress and Trump in the White House are where this fight has gotten us in 2025. This is what the Republican triumph looks like.
The flag of small government the Republicans have carried since at least the Reagan years has changed. This bunch of Republicans show a particular cruelty towards all Americans. All of us in one way or another or going to suffer tremendously. More and more lately cruelty seems to be the point. This is mindboggling.
"Small government" was always a con. It was always "small" when it comes to access by ordinary people, and "small" where the general welfare is concerned, while big and intrusive, indeed heavy-handed when it comes to serving or bailing out the rich and powerful and imposing their will on the preponderance of citizens and on nations abroad. It Orwellianly named "Supply Side Economics". Who is really supplying what to whom? It's an better sounding cover for changing who the goverment is by and for.
Yes. And Regan was the best con of all. I could not stand him. But now J L something seems to have shifted to some really dark stuff. I check in on congressional hearings. These people are something else. They appear to have no humanity. I have been deeply troubled by this. Take a look at Vought, Bondi and Noem "testifying". Chilling. And Emil Bove? omg.
Some of the most evil and they are only just a few.
Combined with arrogance and disrespect.
Of those 4 i have not actually heard Bove speak [only read one of his thuggish missives and a few bites from his employment by *citizen* DirT], but i already know I'm not looking forward to it!
Thanks to Frank Luntz and his coaching of Newt and Faux News, their language came to play of things like look at the millions waste and not that it is only 1%. The actual dollar figure creates more angst than the actual % figure. That is how they are going to get this through - cutting waste, fraud and abuse while wasting, frauding and abusing.
Rickey, I've often commented people can't comprehend large numbers. Years ago, I saw an article where someone converted numbers into time fragments, because people can understand the difference between a second and a year, or so. But I honestly don't think many people can comprehend the difference between a million and a billion--don't even bring up TRILLION!
Belle of the Ranch came up with a GREAT clip yesterday, and its only a few minutes. It is perfect!
Everyone--take a moment to watch this, and help it go viral.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w8eR_shMy8
Thank you for posting this link! Boggling.
Hello Barbara.... In this MegaBill there is No $$$ for the Unhoused, No $$$ for Sick People, and No $$$ Hungry Children... However there is over $1,500,000,000 for DJT's 'Free' Golden 747 from Qatar, and Billions of $$$ for Bombs for Netanyahu...
The really, really sickening irony is them calling this Bill "beautiful." It smacks of sadism. It has been heartbreaking to see all this unfold.
Yes, it does, doesn’t it? Making a bill that steals from the poor and leaves people hungry and without health care is cruel in itself, but then calling it “beautiful”? That’s something you would only expect from a cartoon villain going ‘muahahaha’, not from real people. Then again, I’m starting to think there may actually have been a lot of ‘muahahahas’ when this bill was written…
We got the Bond Villains without the Bond. It seems it up to us to send them packing.
You all have to be James Bond then, I guess ;)
Solidarity.
"Beautiful" is an adjective he uses indiscriminately about anything he thinks may be impressive. His communication skills haven't developed since he was about eight.
It's Trumpspeak for "Ugly", as in "Big Beautiful Wall".
Completely Orwellian.
Creation of something like the Ministry of Love is imminent, headed up by a puppy killer like Kristi Noem or a ghoul like Stephen Miller.
Barbara, just as Pro-Lifers call themselves?
"Citizens United".
And while this is going on, the Trump dictatorship is laying the groundwork to disenfranchise and seize the assets of anyone who disagrees with them. Stripping citizenship from naturalized citizens is only the first step.
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/taking-away-your-citizenship
While this is going on Trump has quietly removed the sanctions from Putins war banks, which will screw Ukraine, the EU, and ultimately us.
I appreciate that they are laying the groundwork to disenfranchise Barron Trump.
“There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our successes. The fertile Earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And the children dying of (hunger) must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificates – died of malnutrition – because the food must rot (if not sold at a profit).
…and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”
"The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was banned and heavily challenged shortly after its publication in 1939"
How perfect. Thank you, Vahe
Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Use/share this spreadsheet as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, as well as those in others. Use your voice and make some “good trouble” ❤️🩹🤍💙
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13lYafj0P-6owAJcH-5_xcpcRvMUZI7rkBPW-Ma9e7hw/edit?usp=drivesdk
Please publish this spreadsheet on Bluesky. It is a massive piece of work. Amazing.
I tried sharing it on BlueSky back in April when I had the Senate tab done and was working on the House one - it was marked as spam and couldn’t be seen by people in comments unless their personal settings were changed to allow them to see potential spam links :(
I can see if I can post it now without it being “spam”. I tried to counteract it being marked as spam by explaining what it was but never got an update/decision.
And thank you for the kind words about it. It has taken a lot of time, but the easier it is to speak up right now, the more likely people will and at a higher volume hopefully!🤞
I don’t know why the senators don’t sit down and recuse themselves. Go I record this is unconstitutional.
I don’t think that can legally be done. Should it be what happens, yes, but if they don’t vote then that only leaves yes votes (minus some Republicans with a spine who aren’t voting yes)
Why don’t they refuse to sign refuse to let it leave the room.
Scream for immediate hearings on truth in AI times and use AI to fact check the republican speeches, bring to their constituents. Protest time for equal protection for us. We didn’t get to know or have time to communicate our opinions.
AI - changes how to very some evidence if could be generated by AIs.
So we need a new list of verifiable evidence. Agreed by both.
2:
I wish. They refuse, Republicans still vote. Same outcome 🤷♀️
Exactly! Why don’t they refuse? Trump does it all the time; works for him…
Good morning, Megan! -- "Are we locusts or are we honeybees?" -- Van Jones. It's only gotten worse since 13 years ago when "Heist: Who Stole the American Dream?" debuted. The "big beautiful bill," which is still being debated this morning, is genocide added to decades of class warfare. It surpasses Sen. (D-MD) Donna Edwards' statement -- it will be the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of the US. Please call Senate Republicans today -- 202-224-3121! Remind them of Sen. (R-IA) Joni Ernst's "We are all going to die," political suicide statement and commit to them we'll make sure if they vote yes, it'll be the same for them. https://youtu.be/Tqs_oSS-Q38?si=mqdG0clLjEW5i4t2
Just called Lisa Murkowski's office - thanks for the info!!
Thank YOU!!
Thank you, Megan!
I posted this above, but for all who utilize social media--especially if you have MAGA contacts!--please watch this video (it's only a few minutes long) and post it. I truly believe many people just don't "get" the numbers we're talking about in this Big Bullshit Bill!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w8eR_shMy8
My shred of hope, perhaps naïvely, is that once people feel the pain of these cuts, they will understand who caused this pain (not Joe Biden) and they will vote accordingly. Those legislators who are afraid of being primaried by Trump will discover that their constituents will oust them. I know that some of these cuts won't be felt immediately, so it may take a while before some people realize who has betrayed them, but perhaps enough folks will see that they need to elect new members of Congress.
Zohran Mamdani's primary win gives us a roadmap. Candidates and lawmakers must understand that everyone needs and deserves their dignity to be recognized, and affordability is the economic key to achieve moving towards an equitable society.
My “shred of hope”…that we’ll even have a federal election ever again. 😥
It's time to follow in the footsteps of our forefathers and split up the US.
"The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world."
Please read Robert Hubbell’s Substack today.
You mean Paul E. Anna?
My shred of hope is in the state Governors. Newsom is now the Barrier and T wants him gone to chill the rest. They have some national guard. If they could get more time info about this ,
Zz
Likely the conclusions are unpleasant we can only go out right as we can?! In
Supposedly, Musk is saying he will back primary candidates against anyone who votes FOR the bill.
I hate Musk, but it would be interesting to see him use some of his money for good for a change.
I have always said that the folks who are worried about PINO’s mean tweets don’t need to worry. Their constituents will kick each and everyone out. At least I pray that the majority of our citizens will smarten up by then.
Love the name, but keep the happiness. There is hope as long as they don’t start to restrict what is taught in our universities.
Free education for all! That will pull us away from the dark ages and towards a renaissance. It will take a generation, but it will arrive - again.
Peace
Betsy, they will go down with the ship, claiming with their last breath that it is Biden's Fault. Period.
If people don’t know, we must tell them.
It is pretty to think so, isn't it?
❣️ Senator Angus King & HCR
“You better sit down, Angus. That was malignant melanoma. You're going to have to have serious surgery.'... And I had the surgery and here I am. If I hadn't had insurance, I wouldn't be here. And it's always haunted me that some young man in America..,”
When I talk to a crowd about why we need single payer health care (aka Medicare for All), I explain how lucky I was that my bilateral breast cancers were discovered shortly before I turned 65, and that my docs all agreed that I could wait for my surgery until I was on Medicare. And then I explain how lucky I am that I wasn't a year or two younger, since then my cancers wouldn't have been detected, and I wouldn't be talking to them because I'd be dead.
At that point, there is always at least one audible gasp from the audience. It's clear that they suddenly understand that health care should not depend on age or employment or economic status, but that we all deserve the care that keeps us healthy and alive.
How could it be that so many struggle for bare survival in "the richest country in the world"?
I don’t think that we get to keep what we make, as a country, not really. It pays for everything except us, doesn’t it?
And we also deserve NOT to be bankrupted by medical bills. How does bankruptcy help anyone. The hospital and doctors lose right along with the patients and their families. And then the rest of us lose when hospitals close or the they raise their rates to make up for the people that can't afford to pay, not to mention their other creditors.
Elizabeth Warren has been saying for years that medical bills shouldn't bankrupt anyone.
💖
Actually, what we need is Medicaid for all. Medicaid is free and pays for everything.
I should’ve waited for tomorrow to read this one but it’s such a horrible night that I just had to come here to make some sort of sense of it. I’ll be afraid to check the news in the morning. Maybe they’ll still be voting. I just see the country crumbling before our eyes and as it turns to rubble and the sun sets, what will we become? Off to bed…hoping for sleep. Thank you, Heather, as always. Take good care, friend. xo
Here is the latest news, in case you haven’t heard it:
Taking away your citizenship: Here it is, right on schedule. We’ve moved onto the next phase of the plan, where the Civil Rights Division, the once proud crown jewel of the Justice Department, will participate in stripping naturalized American citizens of their citizenship.
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/taking-away-your-citizenship
We’re All Rats Now - Paul Krugman
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/were-all-rats-now
Thank you, Dr. Richardson. In 2,000 our National Debt was slightly under 6 trillion dollars, today it is slightly over 36 trillion dollars. Social Security is the largest percentage of the National budget (21%) but 100% of that amount comes from payroll taxes on employees and employers. Don't let the MAGAts fool you. Unless you earn more than $177,000 a year (current cap is over $176,600) YOU and your employer are paying for your own Social Security benefits - not the poor needy billionaires. The law we really need is lifting the cap OFF Social Security contributions so every employee/employer in the Country pays their fair share.
I do not want to steal from the wealthy, I just, like most of you, for them to pony up their fair share of the tax burden. And, I do not want to give up benefits I spent more than 60 years earning so Jeff Bezos can spend 50 million dollars on a gawddamned wedding.
WHY is there a cap on the Social Security tax owed on earnings paid? Seems to me instead of a cap that limits payment, there should be a point at which the tax on extreme earnings goes UP precipitously!
The cap is there because the premise of social security has always been that what you get out corresponds to what you put in. Caps on income, caps on eventual payouts. Raise one and, based on the current model, you should raise the other.
IMHO, the real answer is fairly taxing those with higher incomes and requiring Congress to maintain SS solvency, using tax revenues if necessary.
The GOP has seemingly forgotten that there isn’t much that’s more dangerous than those who have nothing left to lose.
And what this will do to the economy, ultimately. SNAP and Medicaid funds purchase goods and services. While some of those purchases will continue, it will definitely be at a much lower rate. Then their constituent businesses will want bailouts...
Thank goodness.